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MODERN  BIOGRAPHIES 


DR.   BARNARDO 
AS  I  KNEW  HIM 


t^ 


Constable's 
Modern   Biographies 

A  series  of  Monographs,  Bio- 
graphical and  Critical,  of  Notable 
Figures     in     Modern     Literature 

JVith  Portrait  Frontispiece 
Cloth,  IS.  net 

J.  M.   SYNGE.     By  Francis  Bickley 
LAFCADIO  HEARN.  By  Edw.  Thomas 
W.  E.  HENLEY.     By  L.  C.  Cornford 
PAUL  BOURGET.     By  Ernest  Dimnet 
LEO  TOLSTOY.     By  Edward  Garnett 

Uniform  ivith  the  abo've 
MAHOMMED.  By  Meredith  Townsend 


DR.    BARNARDO 

AS    I    KNEW    HIM 


BY 

ONE   OF   HIS   STAFF 

(A.  R.  NEUMAN) 
•I 


LONDON  :    CONSTABLE    AND    COMPANY    LTD. 

BOSTON  &  NEW  YORK :   HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

1914 


'''%^::^i?tij*-t    :  ■[ 


TO 

F.  M.  S. 

IN    MEMORY    OF 
THE    EDITORIAL    ROOM 


892367 


PREFACE 

This  is  in  no  way  a  formal  Life  of  Dr.  Barnardo. 
It  is  simply  an  attempt  to  give  some  idea  of 
what  he  was  to  one  who  shared  with  many 
others  of  the  Staff,  the  privilege  of  working 
with  him  on  terms  of  happy  intimacy. 

That  he  championed  the  cause  of  Needy 
Childhood  with  passionate  devotion,  is  matter 
of  common  knowledge  ;  what  he  was  behind 
the  scenes  is  less  widely  understood  ;  and  it 
is  the  object  of  this  little  book  to  introduce 
the  man  himself,  to  those  who  knew  him  only 
as  the  public  philanthropist. 

A.  R.  N. 


DR.  BARNARDO 
AS  I  KNEW  HIM 


My  first  acquaintance  with  him  dates  back  to 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  and  was 
of  quite  a  fragmentary  kind.  A  friend  of 
mine  who  had  been  doing  hterary  work  in 
connection  with  the  Homes  for  some  time, 
had,  under  the  pressure  of  other  duties,  fallen 
hopelessly  behind  with  her  reports  of  cases, 
and  obtained  Dr.  Barnardo's  consent  to  getting 
a  certain  amount  of  outside  help. 

"  But  you'll  be  sure  to  get  the  right  kind  !  " 
was  his  characteristic  qualification, 

I  suppose  I  came  up  to  the  standard,  for 
a  little  later  on  I  received  a  letter  from 
the  Doctor,  asking  if  I  would  come  to 
the  head  office,  to  discuss  a  piece  of  literary 
work  which  he  wished  to  put  into  the  hands 
of  someone,  not  a  member  of  the  ordinary 
staff. 

Stepney  Causeway  seemed  to  me,  at^hat 
time,  about  as  remote  as  the  North  Pole?  and 


DR.   BARNARDO 

I  laugh  now  to  remember  my  utter  dismay  at 
the  lane-hke  thoroughfare  I  was  half  afraid 
to  go  down.  Whether  it  is  that  one  uncon- 
sciously becomes  acclimatized  to  surroundings, 
or  whether  the  Causeway  really  has  improved, 
I  can  hardly  say  ;  but  it  certainly  does  not 
strike  me  now,  as  the  Abomination  of  Desola- 
tion it  seemed  at  that  first  visit.  But  then, 
the  day  was  about  as  unfavourable  as  could 
have  been  selected  for  making  acquaintance 
with  the  East  End.  A  dull,  leaden  sky,  an 
atmosphere  stagnant  and  murky,  streets  run- 
ning with  the  slosh  of  newly-melted  snow, 
and  a  population,  to  my  unaccustomed  eyes, 
on  one  dead  level  of  drab  misery — it  certainly 
was  not  an  alluring  picture. 

But,  taking  my  courage  in  both  hands,  I 
ventured  to  pick  my  way  along  the  narrow, 
broken  pavement,  and  was  thankful,  indeed, 
to  find  it  only  a  matter  of  yards  to  No.  18. 
Here,  in  order  to  get  to  the  waiting-hall,  it 
was  necessary  to  pass  through  a  lobby,  where 
applicants  for  admission  were  dealt  with,  in 
the  initial  stage. 

Now  I  am  free  to  confess  that  up  to  this 
time,  I  had  considerably  discounted  the 
stories  of  child-rescue  with  which  I  was 
slightly  familiar.  That  is,  I  had  been  ready 
to  echo  the  remark  of  a  friend,  made  only  the 
day  before,  "  They  must  be  coloured  up." 
But  mth  the  first  sight  of  that  receiving-place, 
these  illusions  vanished,  and  I  felt  instantly 
that  no  words  could  possibly  be  too  strong  to 

8 


AS   I  KNEW  HIM 

paint  the  utter  wretchedness  of  the  Children 
of  the  Streets. 

Outside  the  lobby  were  two  little  fellows, 
their  filthy  rags  tied  on  with  bits  of  string, 
devouring  a  plateful  of  food  with  a  ghastly 
avidity  that  called  for  no  explanation.  Crouch- 
ing on  the  ground,  with  the  food  between  them, 
clawing  at  anything  that  came  first,  they 
looked  so  like  a  pair  of  famished  wild  animals 
that  I  could  not,  then,  have  believed  that 
many  such  Waifs  and  Strays  are  actually 
ariiongst  the  brightest  of  the  boys  and,  after 
due  training,  make  about  the  best  of  youthful 
emigrants. 

In  the  lobby  itself,  a  wailing  baby  was  being 
hushed  by  a  young  mother,  literally  "  skin  and 
bone,"  and  hardly  able  to  put  one  foot  before 
the  other.  It  must  indeed  have  meant  a 
supreme  effort  to  her,  to  come  half  a  mile  in 
the  hope  of  securing  a  home  for  the  wizen- 
faced  mite,  whose  beauties  were  apparent 
only  to  the  maternal  eye. 

A  group  of  match-selling  lads,  described  by 
their  twelve-year-old  leader  as  "  Me  and  my 
pals,"  sought  shelter  from  the  tender  mercies 
of  the  wintry  streets  ;  two  little  sisters,  one 
lame,  and  the  other  with  a  rag — and  such  a 
rag  ! — ^tied  over  a  "  bad  eye,"  had  just  been 
brought  to  the  "  Ever-open  Door "  by  a 
friendly  policeman,  while  some  half-dozen 
boys  and  girls,  of  all  ages  and  sizes,  nodded 
peacefully  under  the  influence  of  unaccustomed 
warmth.     But  oh,  the  dirt  and  wretchedness 


DR.  BARNARDO 

of  it  all !  And  then  to  think  of  the  welcome 
awaiting  each  individual  child,  beyond  the 
threshold  of  the  lobby  ! 

Possibly  because  of  my  absorption  in  these 
glimpses  into  an  unknown  world,  my  recol- 
lections of  this  first  interview  with  the  man 
who  was  to  become  my  hero-in-chief  are 
distinctly  vague.  I  believe  I  saw  him  in  a 
room  on  the  ground  floor  (afterwards  my 
own  office),  and  I  think  I  am  right  in  saying 
that  on  this  occasion  he  did  not  walk  up 
and  down,  with  his  arm  thrown  behind  his 
back — an  attitude  so  familiar  to  those  who 
worked  with  him  intimately.  But  his  sharp 
glances,  quick  movements,  and  minute  in- 
structions, were  all  in  his  own  clear-cut 
style. 

I  had  risen  to  go,  when,  with  one  of  his 
lightning  looks,  he  took  stock  of  my  personality 
and  then  exclaimed,  quite  triumphantly  : 

"  I  believe  you're  a  real  child-lover  !  " 

I  admitted  the  soft  impeachment. 

"  You  came  through  the  lobby,  just  now  ?  " 
he  demanded  eagerly. 

"  Yes,  I  did." 

"  And  how  did  what  you  saw  there  strike 
you  ?  " 

"  Why,  I  should  never  have  believed  there 
could  be  anything  so  horrible  if  I  hadn't  seen 
it  with  my  own  eyes." 

"  Ah,"  with  a  sort  of  half -chuckle,  "  now, 
perhaps  you  do  believe  that  my  stories  are  not 
exaggerated  ?  " 

10 


AS  I  KNEW  HIM 

It  was  really  almost  uncanny,  and  I  hesi- 
tated. 

*'  No,"  throwing  his  head  back,  with  a 
hearty  laugh,  "  I'm  not  a  magician.  But  you 
see  I'm  only  too  well  drilled  in  what  people 
who  donH  know  will  insist  upon  thinking — 
and  saying."  Then,  dropping  the  note  of 
amusement,  "  Why,  I  can  never  dare  to  tell 
the  half  of  my  really  bad  stories.  I  wouldn't 
like  you  to  hear  a  tithe  of  the  hateful  things 
that  come  to  my  ears  constantly.  Exaggerate^ 
indeed  !  "  with  a  gesture  of  infinite  contempt, 
as  he  struck  the  table  with  an  emphatic  fist, 
"  no  one  could  exaggerate,  if  they  tried  from 
now  till  doomsday." 

At  this  point  there  came  a  knock  at  the  door 
and  a  messenger  appeared,  bearing  a  note 
from  the  matron  of  the  hospital  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Causeway. 

With  an  "Excuse  me,"  he  read  through 
the  brief  message,  and  instantly  all  the  fire 
died  out  of  his  face,  leaving  on  it  an  expression 
of  the  most  delightful  tenderness. 

"  One  of  my  little  lads  is  just  going  Home," 
he  said,  "  and  wants  me  to  hold  his  hand.  I 
must  go  at  once." 

And  off  he  hurried,  all  other  interests  put 
aside,  in  loving  solicitude  for  this  child  of  his 
adoption. 

I  learnt  afterwards  that  in  the  early  days 
of  his  work,  at  a  bad  operation,  or  a  consulta- 
tion over  a  critical  medical  case,  or  at  the 
death-bed  of  one  of  his  flock,  Dr.  Barnardo 

11 


DR.   BARNARDO 

was  sure  to  be  present,  ready  to  suggest, 
soothe,  or  encourage,  with  the  skill  of  the 
doctor  and  the  devotion  of  the  father.  As 
the  work  grew,  and  claims  became  Legion, 
this  part  of  his  labour  of  love  had  to  be  laid 
aside,  in  all  but  very  special  cases,  although, 
as  he  said  to  me,  more  than  once  : 

"  It's  that  I  miss  most — just  the  personal 
contact  that  makes  the  work  live.^^ 

But  to  return — I  was  able  to  carry  out  the 
instructions  given  me,  and  in  acknowledging 
the  MSS.  he  made  this  very  unusual  comment : 

"  I  think  it  is  worth  more  than  you  are 
asking  .  .  .  and  if  you  will  let  me,  as  a  poor 
man,  representing  a  very  poor  cause,  offer 
you  "  (half  as  much  again),  "  I  will  think  that 
you  are  generous." 

But  although  this  first  glimpse  into  the 
work  of  the  Homes  had  aroused  my  deepest 
sympathy,  I  was  not  free,  at  that  time,  to 
undertake  any  regular  employment  on  their 
behalf,  and  it  must  have  been  quite  two  years 
or  more  before  I  saw  Dr.  Barnardo  again. 
Then,  I  happened  to  be  at  Euston  when  a 
party  of  young  emigrants  was  starting  for 
Liverpool,  and  in  turning  away  from  the  book- 
stall I  came  face  to  face  with  the  Doctor, 
hurrying  to  give  his  boys  and  girls  a  fatherly 
farewell.  Ofi  came  his  hat,  and  out  came  his 
hand  : 

"  But  you  don't  know  me  !  "  I  exclaimed. 

"  Oh,  don't  I  ?  Well,  you  did  some  literary 
work  for  me  once,   and,"  with  a  whimsical 

12 


AS  I   KNEW   HIM 

smile,  "  I  mean  you  to  do  more,  before  I've 
finished." 

I  really  was  quite  taken  aback,  not  under- 
standing then,  that  an  almost  incredible 
quickness  of  identification  was  amongst  the 
many  peculiar  gifts  that  made  him  the  wonder- 
ful man  he  was. 


13 


II 

It  may  be  interesting,  before  going  further 
into  my  personal  experiences  with  Dr.  Bar- 
nardo,  to  give,  in  brief  outHne,  some  of  the 
general  facts  of  his  career.  Born  on  July  4th, 
1845,  in  Dublin,  he  came  of  a  very  mixed 
stock,  his  father  being  of  Spanish  origin  and 
his  mother  representing  an  old  Quaker  family 
who  had  settled  down  for  good  in  Ireland. 
His  school  life  was  none  of  the  happiest,  and 
it  was  probably  then  that  he  felt  the  first 
stirrings  of  that  righteous  indignation  which, 
in  later  life,  burned  hotly  within  him,  when 
brought  in  contact  with  neglected  or  ill- 
treated  childhood. 

On  leaving  school  he  went  for  a  time  into  a 
merchant's  office,  and  although  he  never  took 
kindly  to  mere  business  routine,  the  experi- 
ence thus  gained  was  undoubtedly  good  pre- 
paration for  one  side  of  his  Ufe-work.  Later 
on,  during  a  special  religious  revival  in  Dublin, 
there  came  to  him  another  experience  which 
entirely  changed  his  whole  attitude  of  mind. 
Feeling  himself  to  have  been  "  born  again," 
he  became,  as  he  delighted  to  avow,  "  a  new 
creature  in  Christ  Jesus."  Having  definitely 
dedicated  himself  to  the  service  of  God  and 

14 


DR.   BARNARDO 

Man,  he  was,  at  first,  greatly  attracted  by 
the  Foreign  Mission  field,  and  in  1866  he 
entered  at  the  London  Hospital,  with  a  view 
to  qualifying  for  work  in  China.  But,  with 
his  usual  abounding  energy,  in  the  midst  of 
preparing  for  the  future,  he  turned  vigorously 
to  work  in  the  present,  being  one  of  the  first 
to  volunteer  for  service  in  the  neighbourhood, 
during  the  cholera  outbreak  of  1866-1867. 
Then  came  such  activities  as  preaching  in 
the  street,  visiting  in  the  slums,  and  teaching 
in  a  ragged  school,  of  which  he  soon  became 
superintendent ;  and  in  1867  the  East  End 
Juvenile  Mission  was  started  by  him,  on  a  very 
small  scale  in  two  cottages  in  Hope  Place, 
Stepney.  What  he  saw  and  heard  all  around, 
the  horror  of  the  sin  and  suffering,  especially 
in  its  consequences  to  the  juvenile  population, 
brought  him  before  long  face  to  face  with  the 
question,  London  or  China  ?  Happily  for 
Waifdom  the  balance  dipped  in  favour  of 
work  at  home.  This  decision  was  arrived  at 
partly  through  the  receipt  of  a  wholly  un- 
expected letter  from  a  then  stranger.  The 
writer  of  the  letter,  having  heard  of  the  young 
student's  labours  amongst  the  children  of 
the  East  End,  offered  to  place  at  his  disposal 
the  sum  of  £1000  towards  any  suggested 
scheme  of  child-rescue,  provided  the  suggester 
(T.  J.  B.)  would  consent  to  remain  in  London 
for  a  time.  This  episode  Dr.  Barnardo  always 
looked  upon  as  one  of  the  turning-points  in 
bis  life,  another  being  the  discovery  that  in 

15 


DR.   BARNARDO 

London  were  to  be  found,  in  no  inconsiderable 
numbers,  boys  of  tender  years,  literally  with- 
out home,  friends,  food,  or  shelter.  The 
story  of  this  discovery,  as  told  in  the  booklet 
"  My  First  Arab,"  sounds  almost  like  melo- 
drama, but  the  awful  realities  disclosed  in 
this  first  hunt  for  the  homeless,  made  such  deep 
impression  on  the  heart  of  the  seeker,  that 
sympathy  took  the  practical  form  of  leaving 
no  stone  unturned  to  provide  shelter  for  the 
Children  of  Need. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  year  1879  came  the 
establishment  of  the  first  of  the  well-known 
Dr.  Barnardo  Homes,  at  18  Stepney  Causeway. 
With  astonishing  rapidity  the  work  caught  on  ; 
the  original  Home  was  enlarged,  almost  past 
recognition  ;  workshops  for  lads  were  started 
and  branch  Homes  opened ;  whilst  on  more 
general  lines,  the  notorious  Edinburgh  Castle 
public-house  at  Limehouse  became  the  pioneer 
of  the  Coffee  Palace,  as  well  as  a  church  for 
the  people  and  a  centre  of  varied  mission 
activities. 

So  far,  rescue  work  had  been  confined  to 
dealing  with  boys,  but  on  Dr.  Barnardo's 
marriage  to  Miss  Syrie  Elmslie,  it  became 
possible  to  turn  his  attention  to  the  even 
greater  needs  of  neglected  girls.  Mossford 
Lodge,  Barkingside,  was  the  first  home  of 
the  young  couple,  who  started  housekeeping 
with  a  family  of  twelve  little  girls,  rescued 
from  conditions  which  gave  them  no  sort  of 
chance  of  a  fair  start  in  life. 

16 


AS   I  KNEW  HIM 

From  this  modest  beginning  has  developed, 
on  the  same  spot,  the  Girls'  Village  Homes, 
with  some  1400  inhabitants.  A  world  in  itself 
is  this  Village  :  66  cottages,  each  under  the 
care  of  a  motherly  Mother  ;  one  of  the  largest 
Girls'  Elementary  Schools  in  the  kingdom, 
with  an  average  of  800  scholars  ;  a  church 
seating  1200  ;  a  hospital  of  60  beds  (built 
recently,  on  most  up-to-date  lines) ;  a  sana- 
torium for  the  weak-chested ;  a  deeply 
interesting  section  for  the  feeble-minded  ;  a 
laundry  with  some  80  workers  and  a  weekly 
output  of  over  20,000  garments — such  are 
the  principal  features  of  a  scheme,  always 
specially  dear  to  its  founder. 

Meanwhile,  the  boys  continued  to  ask 
admission,  in  ever-increasing  numbers,  necessi- 
tating the  opening  of  fresh  Homes  for  the 
reception  of  applicants  of  all  ages,  from  the 
little  lad  at  "The  Children's  Fold,"  to  the 
big  youth  of  the  Labour  House.  But  although 
the  Homes  were,  at  the  commencement, 
chiefly  in  London,  every  part  of  the  United 
Kingdom — and  beyond  it,  for  the  matter  of 
that — soon  began  to  contribute  its  quota  of 
needy  children.  Thus  it  speedily  became  need- 
ful to  establish  Ever-open  Doors  in  the  most 
populous  cities  and  towns,  where  direct 
personal  application  could  be  made  by,  or  on 
behalf  of,  the  children  of  the  streets.  It 
followed,  too,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that 
privation  and  neglect  brought  about  corre- 
sponding physical  deterioration,  and  almost 

B  17 


DR.   BARNARDO 

from  the  beginning  it  was  essential  to  provide 
special  accommodation  for  the  sick  and 
afflicted.  Starting  with  the  adaptation  of 
unsuitable  premises  as  an  Infirmary,  Queen 
Victoria's  Jubilee  year  saw  the  establishment 
of  Her  Majesty's  Hospital,  just  opposite  to 
the  Central  Offices  in  Stepney  Causeway. 
Its  80  beds  are  kept  in  constant  use,  not  to 
speak  of  quite  a  considerable  out-patients' 
department,  representing  the  various  East 
End  Homes.  But  again,  it  soon  became  clear 
that  special  accommodation  would  have  to 
be  forthcoming  for  the  chronic  invalid,  the 
hopeless  cripple,  and  those  children  with 
defective  senses,  or  actual  feebleness  of  in- 
tellect. Hence  the  establishment  of  three 
Homes  for  Incurables  and  Cripples  at  Birk- 
dale,  Harrogate,  and  Tunbridge  Wells,  not  to 
speak  of  various  smaller  establishments,  north, 
south,  east,  and  west.  Another  special  class, 
the  infant,  also  put  in  a  claim  for  specific 
accommodation,  and  for  such  the  gift  of 
"  Babies'  Castle  "  at  Hawkhurst  came  as  a 
welcome  accession  to  the  Homes.  But  experi- 
ence showed  that  very  tiny  people  flourish 
better  in  small,  than  in  large,  numbers,  so 
the  Castle  became  a  home  for  the  toddler, 
and  for  the  real  babies  came  the  system  of 
boarding  out,  with  which  Dr.  Barnardo  was 
fairly  enamoured.  Indeed,  he  came  to  feel  so 
strongly  the'advantage  of  letting  the  children 
join  in  the  ordinary  life  of  the  ordinary 
cottage — a  good  type,  of  course — or  of  being 

18 


AS  I  KNEW   HIM 

grouped  together  in  small  numbers  that, 
excepting  with  elder  lads,  and  for  the 
purposes  of  special  training,  the  Institutional 
system  fell  more  and  more  out  of  his  favour. 
And  he  would  certainly  have  greatly  re- 
joiced in  the  Boys'  Village  at  Woodford 
Bridge,  which  is  rapidly  developing  under 
the  guidance  of  the  present  indefatigable 
Director,  Mr.  William  Baker. 

But  in  spite  of  increasing  accommodation, 
it  became  clear  to  the  founder  of  the  Homes 
that  he  must  go  further  afield,  in  order  to 
find  adequate  scope  for  his  rapidly  enlarging 
family.  For  not  only  was  the  congested 
labour  market  of  England  to  be  considered, 
but  in  the  case  of  a  large  percentage  of  cases, 
undesirable  relatives  or  former  acquaintances, 
would  be  a  serious  handicap  to  the  boy  or 
girl  when  making  a  first  start  in  life.  From 
these  considerations  came  to  pass  that  system 
of  careful  Emigration  to  Canada,  which  Dr. 
Barnardo  had  good  reason  to  look  upon  as 
amongst  the  most  successful  of  his  ventures. 
For  there  is  room  and  to  spare  for  labour  in 
the  new  world,  whilst  the  conditions  of  family 
life,  and  the  chances  of  legitimate  getting-on, 
proved  so  much  better  than  those  at  home, 
that  his  Canadian  work  never  failed  to  give 
him  fullest  satisfaction. 

Several  times,  in  the  midst  of  his  multitu- 
dinous cares,  the  Director  managed  to  visit 
the  Dominion,  and  each  time  returned  full  of 
enthusiasm  as  to  what  he  had  seen  and  heard. 

19 


DR.   BARNARDO 

Indeed,  the  remarkable  success  of  this  branch 
of  his  work,  he  felt  to  be  more  than  reward 
sufficient  for  all  the  labour  it  cost  him  in  the 
early  days  of  inception  and  organization. 

The  bulk  of  all  this  was  in  full  swing  when 
Dr.  Barnardo  added  to  his  already  over- 
heavy  burden,  the  establishment  of  the 
Young  Helpers'  League,  though  the  number 
of  Homes  grew  and  continued  to  grow,  with 
the  steady  increase  of  the  "  biggest  family  on 
earth."  At  the  time  of  his  death,  this  family 
numbered  over  7000  in  actual  residence,  the 
total  number  of  rescues  exceeding  60,000. 
For  the  accommodation  of  the  children  in 
residence,  and  for  the  oversight  of  those  still 
feeling  their  feet,  some  65  Homes  were  in 
full  swing,  including  the  Canada  equipment 
of  Distributing  Homes  and  Training  Farms. 
Some  of  these  Homes — notably  the  Watts' 
Naval  Training  School  in  Norfolk — were 
presented  to  the  Homes,  freehold,  and  ready 
for  occupation,  but  as  regards  the  London 
Institutions — and  others — building  or  rebuild- 
ing became  an  absolute  necessity,  and  ran 
into  figures  that  might  well  have  daunted  a 
less  ardent  spirit. 

And  the  income  for  it  all  ?  £196,286  in  the 
last  year  of  Dr.  Barnardo's  life,  as  against  the 
£214  of  the  first  two  years — taken  together — 
whilst  in  the  forty  years  of  his  headship,  total 
receipts  exceeded  three  and  a  half  millions. 
For  the  whole  of  this  financial  burden,  "  The 
Father  of  Nobody's  Children  "  (the  late  Mr. 

go 


AS  I  KNEW  HIM 

Stead's  name  for  him)  held  himself  responsible, 
and  though  "  Prince  of  Beggars  "  was  one  of 
the  titles  he  well  deserved,  it  can  hardly  be 
wondered  at,  that  a  life  so  strenuous  wore 
itself  out  prematurely.  During  his  Jubilee 
year  serious  heart  mischief  declared  itself, 
and  he  was  compelled  to  take  a  prolonged  rest. 
Six  years  later  came  a  second  severe  attack, 
and  although  treatment  at  Nauheim  gave 
relief,  repeated  visits  to  the  German  Spa 
became  necessary,  and  he  was  never  really  the 
same  man  again.  Still,  he  worked  on  for 
another  four  years,  until  in  1906  he  went  to 
Nauheim,  too  late  for  treatment  to  be  even 
attempted.  But  with  his  wonderful  recupera- 
tive power,  he  bore  the  journey  home  better 
than  might  have  been  expected,  and  on  the 
day  of  his  death  insisted  on  dictating  some 
specially  urgent  letters  to  one  of  his  private 
secretaries.  In  saying  good-bye  to  her,  he 
remarked  : 

"  I  have  been  ill.  I  never  thought  I  should 
see  my  wife  and  children  again.  I've  been 
through  the  Valley  of  the  Shadow  of  Death." 

And  the  recollection  of  what  he  had  gone 
through,  seemed  too  vivid  for  him  to  treat  it 
in  his  usual  cheery  way,  though  he  certainly 
appeared  to  think  himself  better  than  he 
really  was. 

Two  hours  later,  without  pain  or  distress, 
he  calmly  "  fell  on  sleep,"  dying  in  harness, 
just  as  he  would  himself  have  chosen,  had 
the  choice  been  his. 

21 


Ill 

The  next  phase  of  my  connection  with  the 
work  of  the  Homes  began  by  the  unexpected 
receipt  of  the  following  letter  : 

"  Could  you  come  and  see  me  here  ?  I 
think  I  have  something  on  hand  in  which  you 
might  be  able  to  render  me  permanent  aid  if 
you  were  so  disposed.  But  I  will  say  nothing 
more  until  I  see  you.  Perhaps  you  are  already 
hopelessly  engaged,  too  full  up,  in  short,  to 
do  anything  more.  Even  so,  I  would  like  to 
take  counsel  with  you  as  I  think  you  might 
advise  me,  even  if  you  were  unable  to  person- 
ally assist  me." 

And  the  letter  wound  up  thus  character- 
istically : 

"  P.S. — I  am  afraid  this  will  not  reach  you 
in  time  for  to-morrow.  If  it  did,  I  would  ask 
you,  could  you  call  to-morrow,  Tuesday, 
between  2  and  3  o'clock  ?  " 

The  dear  man  always  did  love  giving  short 
notice,  but  this  time,  as  it  happened,  I  was 
able  to  go  on  the  ^^Tuesday .  I  found  Stepney 
given  over  to  a  fine  [pea-soup  {fog,  necessitat- 
ing the  use  of  every  gas  burner  throughout 

22 


DR.   BARNARDO 

the  day.  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  I  was 
introduced  to  the  Doctor's  favourite  sanctum, 
the  large  Board  Room,  with  which  I  was  des- 
tined to  become  so  famiUar.  All  the  same, 
I  never  became  so  accustomed  to  it,  as  quite 
to  lose  my  first  impression  of  our  two  selves, 
as  very  small  kernels  in  a  very  big  shell.  The 
immense  table  at  which  Dr.  Barnardo  sat — 
until  he  began  his  pacings  up  and  down — was 
simply  covered  from  end  to  end  with  a  perfect 
wilderness  of  papers,  written  and  printed. 
And  although  these  were  constantly  sorted 
and  arranged  by  the  most  orderly  of  secretaries, 
I  soon  discovered  that  by  the  middle  of  the 
afternoon,  whatever  might  be  the  particular 
paper  needed,  it  was  likely  to  be  found  any- 
where rather  than  in  its  allotted  place. 

"  Oh,  I  know — my  bag,"  was  a  favourite 
after-thought,  and  by  the  time  that  capacious 
receptacle  had  been  rummaged  through,  the 
droll  look  I  loved  would  come  over  his  face,  as 
he  whispered  mysteriously  : 

"  No,  it's  here — in  my  special  drawer ;  I 
put  it  there,  I  remember,  to  be  sure  of  having 
it  at  hand.  Now,  don't  tell  Odling,  there's  a 
good  soul !  " 

At  this  interview  with  Dr.  Barnardo  I 
noticed  that  though  alert  and  vigorous  to  a 
degree,  there  were  decided  indications  of 
physical  wear  and  tear.  Certainly  his  deafness 
had  greatly  increased,  and  I  believe  one  reason 
why  he  was  desirous  of  securing  my  permanent 
services  was,  that  I  could  generally  make  him 

23 


DR.  BARNARDO 

hear,  without  the  intervention  of  the  ear- 
trumpet,  which  he  never  used  with  ease  and 
comfort. 

How  well  I  can  picture  him  that  afternoon  ! 
His  eyes  half  closed — behind  the  pince-nez, 
without  which  I  only  saw  him  once — the 
fingers  of  either  hand  resting  against  the  tips 
of  the  other,  both  being  swayed  to  and  fro, 
in  a  sort  of  rhythmic  movement,  as  he  un- 
folded his  latest  scheme. 

His  way  of  introducing  his  subject  was 
highly  characteristic,  and  distinctly  puzzling 
to  the  uninitiated. 

"  Do  you  believe  in  dreams  ?  "  he  enquired 
suddenly. 

"  Dreams  ?  "  I  replied,  greatly  surprised 
at  the  unexpected  query.  "  I  don't  know 
that  I  ever  thought  much  about  them.  Cer- 
tainly my  own  have  never  been  of  any  particu- 
lar value." 

"Well,  do  you  see  any  real  reason  why 
guidance  should  not  come  to  us  in  this  way — 
say,  as  an  exceptional  thing  ?  " 

"  No,  I  suppose  not,  though  I  think  I  should 
have  to  be  pretty  clear  of  my  ground." 

"  All  right.  Now,  please,  listen  carefully 
to  what  I'm  going  to  tell  you  about  a  dream 
of  mine.  I  was  sitting  in  my  study  one  even- 
ing recently,  after  a  hard  day  here.  I  had  been 
busy  for  hours,  receiving  applications  for 
admission.  No,"  answering  my  unspoken 
question,  "  I  can't  deal  with  every  case,  of 
course,  now  there  are  so  many,  but  I  do  see  a 

24 


AS  I  KNEW  HIM 

good  number  and  anything  special  I  always 
deal  with  myself.  On  this  particular  day  the 
specials  had  been  very  numerous.  Two  little 
cripples — girls — had  to  be  taken  in  at  once, 
and  a  small  boy,  incurably  blind.  And  then 
some  of  the  healthy — or  comparatively  healthy 
— children  had  such  pitiful  stories  ;  orphans, 
or  worse ;  penniless  and  homeless,  and 
coming  from  such  awful  surroundings.  It 
really  was  a  worse  experience  than  usual,  and 
that's  saying  a  good  deal." 

Here  he  paused  and  sighed. 

"  But,"  I  ventured  to  suggest,  "  do  you  not 
get  accustomed,  to  some  extent  at  any  rate, 
to  such  things  ?  " 

"  Thank  God,  no,"  was  the  most  emphatic 
reply.  "  If  I  were  once  to  get  case-hardened, 
I  should  feel  it  was  all  up  with  my  work. 
But  to  come  back  to  the  evening  I'm  telling 
you  about.  I  was  just  tired  out  when  I  got 
home,  and  as  I  sat  by  the  fire,  thinking  over 
the  children's  woes,  I  fell  asleep  and  dreamed 
a  dream  that  was  every  bit  as  real  to  me  as 
any  actual  happening.  You  do  know  what 
that  means,  I  suppose  ?  "  with  a  touch  of 
anxiety,  as  to  the  limitations  of  my  compre- 
hension. 

"  Oh,  yes,  I  do  understand  so  much,  though 
as  I've  said  before  I'm  not  a  good  dreamer." 

"  A  better  doer,  eh  ?  "  with  one  of  his  quizzi- 
caljlooks.  "  Well,  I  was  walking  along  the  bank 
of  a  rapid,  swollen  river  when  suddenly  I 
heard  a  loud  cry  for  help  ;   and  as  I  turned  in 

25 


DR.   BARNARDO 

the  direction  of  the  cry,  I  saw  a  Httle  lad  just 
above  me,  being  carried  down  by  the  hurrying 
water.  I  ran  along  the  bank  at  a  fine]^rate — 
one  is  more  agile  in  dreams — hoping  to  get  well 
in  front  of  him.  I  succeeded  at  last,  and  threw 
myself  down  on  the  bank,  stretching  out  my 
arms  to  catch  him — but  my  arms  were  not 
long  enough.  It  was  a  horrid  feeling,"  and 
he  gave  an  involuntary  shiver.  "  I  couldn't 
swim,  I  thought ;  there  was  no  rope  or  piece 
of  wood  at  hand,  and  there  was  no  time  to 
fetch  help.  Then  I  suddenly  caught  sight  of 
some  children  at  play  in  a  field  a  little  way  off 
and  I  cried  out  so  frantically  to  them  I  wonder 
I  didn't  wake  myself,  especially  as  I  saw  the 
boy  drifting  further  and  further  away  from 
me.  But  in  the  very  nick  of  time  I  heard  a 
child's  voice  behind  me,  saying  loudly  and 
clearly,  '  Don't  be  afraid.  We  will  help  you 
to  save  him  ' ;  and  I  felt  the  children  take 
hold  of  my  feet  and  grip  my  clothes  so  tightly 
that  I  could  reach  out  just — but  only  just — 
far  enough  to  catch  hold  of  the  sinking  boy. 
In  another  minute  I  had  him  safely  in  my  arms 
and  the  children  behind  pulled  us  quickly  on 
to  dry  ground.  I  saw  the  boy  lived  and  would 
quickly  revive,  and  the  delight  of  the  rescue 
did  what  my  cries  had  not  done — woke  me 
wide  awake,  in  a  perfect  tremor  of  joy.  Now, 
do  you  see  what  it  all  means  ?  " 

"  I'm  afraid  not,"  I  had  to  confess,  "  though 
I  believe  there's  a  sort  of  glimmer  coming  into 
my  mind." 

26 


AS  I  KNEW  HIM 

"  I'll  make  the  glimmer  a  bright  light  in  a 
minute.  Don't  you  see  ? — I  can't  do  the  rescu- 
ing alone.  I  can  find  the  children,  any  number 
of  them,  and  admit  them  and  make  plans  for 
their  training  and  education.  But  I  can't 
provide  the  needs-be  to  meet  such  heavy 
expenses  as  must  be  incurred  if  we  are  to  keep 
to  our  motto — '  No  really  Destitute  Child 
Ever  Refused  Admission.'  Why,  think  of 
the  food  bill  alone,  for  just  [one  day  !  And 
the  clothing,  and  the  housing,  and  the  nursing, 
and  the  teaching,  and  the  setting  out  in  life. 
Don't  misunderstand  me,  though.  I  know 
Whose  are  the  silver  and  the  gold,  and  I 
absolutely  believe  He  could  meet  every  need  of 
mine,  without  a  single  appeal  to  the  public." 

"  You  mean  on  the  lines  of  George 
Muller  ?  " 

"  I  do  ;  but  deeply  as  I  reverence  his  faith, 
I  have  come  to  the  deliberate  conclusion  that 
one  part  of  the  definite  work  God  has  given 
me  to  do,  is  to  try  to  rouse  in  others,  by  every 
legitimate  means,  the  intense,  personal  interest 
He  has  put  into  my  heart  for  the  '  lambs  '  of 
His  flock." 

"  And  your  dream  means  crying  to  others 
to  help  you  ?  " 

"  Ah,  but  it  means  a  great  deal  more  than 
that.  It's  the  children's  help  I  want.  They 
do  a  good  deal  already,  lots  of  them — better- 
off  children,  I  mean,  of  course — but  there's 
hardly  any  limit  to  what  they  could  do,  if 
their  help  were  united  and  properly  organized." 

27 


DR.   BARNARDO 

"  And  they  would  be  gainers,  too." 

"  That  they  would  !  "  he  exclaimed  joyfully. 
"  You're  catching  my  idea,  I  see." 

And  then  he  proceeded  to  outline  his  new  plan 
of  campaign.  Briefly  his  idea  of  the  "  Little  " 
— afterwards  modified  to  "  Young  " — "  Help- 
ers' League  "  ("  Y.H.L.,"  as  it  quickly  came 
to  be  called),  was  to  band  together  into  groups, 
the  many  juvenile  friends  of  the  Homes, 
scattered  all  over  the  world.  Such  groups  of 
workers — to  be  called  Companions — he  pro- 
posed should  be  known  as  Habitations,  with 
smaller  groups — Lodges — in  affiliation.  Local 
Presidents,  Secretaries,  and  Treasurers,  would 
of  course  be  needed,  and  must  be  chosen  with 
discretion  by  recognized  officials — Wardens — 
representing  head-quarters,  where  it  would 
also  be  imperative  to  organize  a  strong  Council, 
with  an  experienced  secretary  and  helpers. 
And  this  rough  outline  has  actually  been  the 
basis  of  League  work  ever  since,  with  only 
such  minor  modifications  as  experience  has 
suggested  from  time  to  time. 

Naturally,  I  followed  the  unfolding  of  the 
scheme — quite  a  novelty  at  that  time — with 
deepest  interest,  but  I  was  hardly  prepared 
for  the  downright  question  : 

"Now  what  will  you  be?  A  little  too 
abrupt,  am  I  ?  Well,  do  you  like  public 
speaking  ?  " 

"  Not  at  all — excepting  to  children." 

''  It  would  be  children,  or  young  people, 
you  would  have  to  speak  to.    And,"  he  added, 

28 


AS  I  KNEW   HIM 

with  what  I  irreverently  got  to  call — to  myself 
— his  "  knowing  wink,"  "  it's  no  good  telling 
me  you're  unsociable." 

"  Well,  no,"  I  admitted,  ''  I  must  confess 
to  a  liking  for  my  species." 

"  Very  well,  then  you'll  be  one  of  the 
Wardens." 

"  I  should  dearly  like  it,  but  ..." 

"  Oh,  dear,  if  there's  one  word  in  the 
English  language  I  hate,  it's  that.  All  the 
same,  tell  me  your  special  '  but '." 

And  to  my  no  little  surprise,  he  listened 
intently  to  my  brief  explanation  of  the  posi- 
tion of  an  only  daughter  in  a  home  of  many 
claims. 

"  Yes,  I  see  ;  you're  quite  right,"  was  his 
verdict.  "  You'd  rather  work  in  London. 
What  about  the  general  secretaryship  ?  " 

Again  came  a  difficulty  in  the  shape  of 
inability  to  be  away  from  home,  all  day  and 
every  day,  till  at  last  I  suggested  : 

"  Don't  you  think  you  had  better  get 
people  with  more  leisure,  for  the  important 
posts  ?  " 

''No,  I  don't,''  came  with  a  perfect  roar. 
"  I  told  you  before,  when  I  want  a  thing  I  get 
it.  Now,  just  wait  a  minute,"  and  shutting 
his  eyes  for  a  few  moments,  he  evolved  a  plan 
by  which  I  should  undertake  a  good  deal  of 
organizing,  a  special  correspondence  depart- 
ment, a  really  large  amount  of  record-keeping, 
and  a  full  share  of  literary  work,  together  with 
the  oversight  of  a  small  clerical  staff, 

89 


DR.   BARNARDO 

"So  you  see,"  he  concluded  triumphantly, 
"  it  will  be  enough  if  you  come  here  three 
days  a  week.  Though,"  with  his  most  in- 
gratiating smile,  "  I  dare  say  you'll  give  us 
an  extra  day,  now  and  then,  in  fcase  of 
need  !  " 


30 


IV 

The  organization  of  this  new  branch  of  work 
involved  a  vast  amount  of  thought,  not  to 
speak  of  correspondence  and  interviewing, 
but  in  Httle  more  than  a  month  the  essential 
preliminaries  had  all  been  arranged,  and  I  was 
summoned  to  take  possession  of  an  office, 
"  only  waiting  anxiously  for  you  !  " 

On  my  first  day  at  Stepney  I  was  honoured 
by  a  morning  call  from  Dr.  Barnardo,  who, 
after  the  heartiest  of  welcomes,  explained  that 
he  had  made  special  arrangements  for  me  to 
dine  at  the  Hospital — "  I  knew  you'd  like  that, 
with  your  experience  of  nursing." 

And  then  he  got  on  his  hobby-horse  and  rode 
the  League  at  break-neck  pace.  But  although 
so  enthusiastic  and  so  given  to  sanguine  fore- 
cast, even  his  anticipations  came  far  short  of 
the  actual  reality.  He  would  be  satisfied,  he 
felt,  at  its  commencement,  if  in  ten  years' 
time  "  several  thousands  "  of  young  people 
had  become  Companions  of  the  League, 
whereas,  at  the  date  of  his  death,  the  actual 
membership  stood  at  well  over  30,000,  repre- 
senting nearly  2000  Habitations  and  Lodges, 
whilst  their  contributions  to  the  work  of  the 
Homes  had  reached  close  upon  £150,000  in 

31 


DR.  BARNARDO 

fourteen  years — ^this,  too,  with  a  steady 
annual  increase,  in  numbers  and  figures. 

And  if  Dr.  Barnardo  would  have  been  as- 
tonished could  he  have  looked  into  the  future, 
his  staff  would  certainly  have  been  dumb- 
founded. I  believe  every  head  of  a  depart- 
ment in  the  Stepney  offices,  looked  with  more 
or  less  of  suspicion — in  some  cases  amounting 
to  fear — on  this  new  venture,  and  when  it 
leaked  out  that  much  of  the  responsibility 
would  be  in  the  hands  of  women,  their  dismay 
knew  no  bounds.  Hence,  though  accorded 
a  pleasant  personal  welcome,  I  very  soon 
discovered  that  my  position  was  distinctly 
peculiar.  For  one  thing,  though  my  room  was 
quite  large  enough  to  accommodate  my  two 
clerks,  as  well  as  myself,  they  were  both 
located  in  the  outside  general  offices.  Also, 
I  don't  know  which  was  the  more  disturbed, 
I,  at  finding  myself  with  the  control  of  men 
clerks,  or  they  at  discovering  that  their 
"  boss  "  was  a  woman  ! 

Again,  all  the  record-keeping  had  been  started 
without  reference  to  my  wishes,  and  I  became 
increasingly  conscious  that  I  was  hemmed  in 
on  all  sides,  and  had  practically  no  freedom 
of  action.  It  was  an  uncomfortable  experi- 
ence— ^to  put  it  mildly — and  the  climax  came 
when  I  received  a  letter  from  Dr.  Barnardo, 
couched  in  somewhat  vague  terms,  but  un- 
mistakably suggestive  of  displeasure  at  the 
rate  at  which  my  department  was  proceeding, 
as  compared  with  the  unexpected  develop- 

82 


AS  I  KNEW  HIM 

ment  of  the  League.  It  seemed  all  the  harder 
to  me,  bee  use  I  had  been  putting  in  so  many 
of  the  "  extra  "  days  at  which  the  Doctor 
had  hinted.  I  really  felt  very  much  like 
backing  out  at  the  end  of  my  three  months' 
trial — indeed,  I  should  have  done  it,  and  so 
missed  much  happy  and  memorible  exp  ri- 
ence,  but  for  a  fortunate  "  accident." 

Amongst  the  staff  was  a  man  of  whom  I 
had  often  heard,  as  specially  shrewd  and 
clever,  but  whose  department  hardly  touched 
mine.  On  this  particular  morning,  however, 
he  came  down  to  consult  me  as  to  an  ambigu- 
ous letter,  that  was  evidently  not  meant  for 
him  and  might  be,  he  thought,  intended  for 
me.  The  matter  having  been  amicably  settled, 
his  eye  fell  on  Dr.  Barnardo's  personal  letter, 
lying  on  my  table.  He  pulled  a  long  face  at 
its  many  sheets,  and  then  looking  at  me  a 
little  doubtfully,  he  remarked  : 

"  I  hope  the  length  of  that  has  not  upset  you?  " 

"  Not  its  length,"  I  replied,  "  though  it  does 
take  a  good  bit  of  reading  ;  but  it  is  this  last 
sheet,"  handing  it  to  him,  "  that  I  can't  make 
out.    Is  there  more  behind,  do  you  think  ?  " 

He  read  it  through  carefully  and  then  replied 
confidently  : 

"  No,  I  don't  think  it  means  anything, 
excepting  that  he  is  worried  about  the  work 
of  the  League  and  doesn't  see  how  it  is  to  be 
got  through.  No,"  he  added,  reassuringly, 
"  you  needn't  distress  yourself  about  that. 
Knowing  him  as  I  do — and  I  think  there's 


DR.   BARNARDO 

nobody  who  has  worked  quite  so  much  with 
him,  by  night  as  well  as  by  day — I  can  truly 
say  that  his  way  is  to  hit  straight  from  the 
shoulder,  if  he  has  to  hit  at  all." 

"  Then  you  would  not  advise  me  to  take  any 
notice  of  his  hints  ?  " 

"  I  should  not,  if  I  were  you,  that  is,  not 
beyond  stating,  clearly  and  briefly,  that  your 
present  staff  is  inadequate,  in  view  of  the 
unlooked-for  pressure.    But  .  .  ." 

"  Yes,  don't  be  afraid  to  say  exactly  what 
you  think." 

*'  Well,  it's  just  this  way,"  he  replied,  with 
a  smile,  twin  to  his  Chief's,  "  I  don't  really 
know  you,  you  see,  but  the  whole  thing  hangs 
on  whether  you  know  your  work.  If  you  do, 
you  need  not  be  in  the  least  afraid.  You  will 
probably  be  tested  all  round,  especially  as  our 
first  Lady  of  Responsibility,  and  then,  if  he  is 
satisfied  that  you  are  reliable,  I  can  tell  you 
this — ^you  will  be  trusted.^^ 

Better  advice  was  never  given,  and  I 
speedily  found  the  advantage  of  following  it, 
for  when  I  sent  up  a  list  of  the  daily  duties  of 
my  office,  with  an  estimate  of  the  time  occu- 
pied in  dealing  with  each  class  of  work,  the 
response  was  an  immediate  trebling  of  the 
staff — with  this  limitation,  of  course,  "  Until 
the  extreme  pressure  is  relieved." 

My  head  clerk  (the  staff  was  now  perma- 
nently increased  by  the  addition  of  a  second 
junior)  was  a  particularly  pleasant  young  man, 
of  some  experience. 

34 


AS  I   KNEW   HIM 

"  Do  you  like  Mr.  Brown  ?  "  asked  the  Doctor 
suddenly,  apropos  apparently  of  nothing,  "  and 
does  he  do  as  you  want  him  to  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  was  the  hearty  response,  "  I  like 
him  very  much,  and  I  find  him  all  a  respon- 
sible clerk  should  be." 

"  I  thought  you  would,"  he  responded ; 
"  you  see,  he  had  to  be  a  gentleman,  as  well  as 
a  good  worker." 

I  smiled  inwardly,  remembering  the  deli- 
cate way  in  which  that  young  man  had  tested 
my  capabilities  before  giving  loyal  allegiance 
to  a  member  of  the  weaker  sex.  He,  too,  was 
one  who  thoroughly  understood  and  appre- 
ciated our  Head,  whose  sharp  ways  were  apt 
to  be  disconcerting  to  the  self-conscious.  I  re- 
member his  coming  one  day  into  the  office  with 
quite  a  radiant  look  on  his  usually  quiet  face. 

"  What  is  the  matter  ?  "  I  asked.  "  Have 
you  come  into  a  fortune  ?  " 

''  Almost,"  he  replied,  with  a  smile.  "  It's 
such  a  pleasure  to  be  working  for  a  man  like 
Dr.  Barnardo." 

"  Why,  what  has  happened  ?  " 

"  Well,  I  dare  say  you  have  heard  about 
those  three  clerks  who  took  too  much  on  the 
way  home  on  Tuesday,  and  were  locked  up. 
It  got  to  Dr.  Barnardo's  ears,  of  course,  and 
he  was  upset." 

"  Do  you  mean  about  its  being  a  discredit 
to  the  Homes  ?  " 

"  Oh,  no,  not  that — ^they  didn't  even  belong 
to  the  regular  staff — no,  he  was  just  distressed 

35 


DR.  BARNARDO 

for  them.  And  he  sent  word  all  round  the 
offices — you  were  out  when  the  notice  came — 
asking  that  all  the  young  clerks  should  meet 
him  in  the  Board  Room  as  soon  as  he  got 
here  this  afternoon.  And — well,  he  talked  to 
us,  for  half  an  hour,  just  like  a  father." 
"  Did  he  want  you  to  take  the  pledge  ?  " 
"  Not  exactly,  but  after  talking  about  the 
drink  in  a  way  that  made  every  one  of  us 
listen,  he  said,  '  Now,  I'm  not  going  to  ask 
you  to  take  any  pledge,  because,  if  I  did,  some 
of  you  might  feel  you  must,  and  that  wouldn't 
be  one  bit  of  good.  But  if  you  think  it  over, 
and  do  it  of  your  own  accord,  why,  you  couldn't 
do  better,  nor  please  me  more.'  But,"  added 
Mr.  Brown  thoughtfully,  "  it  wasn't  only 
what  he  said,  it  was  that  he  seemed  so  anxious 
that  each  of  us  should  be  making  the  best  of 
this  life.  I've  been  in  other  offices  and  I  know 
the  difference.  Not  that  I've  ever  been  un- 
kindly treated,  but  I  never  felt  before  that 
it  was  a  personal  matter  with  the  Chief  how  I 
turned  out — and  now  I  do  !  "  He  certainly 
showed  his  appreciation  by  putting  his  heart 
into  his  work,  and  matters  in  my  department 
went  on  as  comfortably  as  was  consistent  with 
the  immediate  and  abnormal  growth  of  the 
League. 

Things  were  not  made  easier,  however,  by 
the  fact  that  it  came  into  being  just  before 
one  of  those  terrible  first  outbreaks  of  in- 
fluenza, not  easily  forgotten  by  those  who 
went   through   them.      During   the   previous 


AS  I  KNEW  HIM 

outbreak  the  inmates  of  the  Homes  had 
suffered  severely,  the  Stepney  premises  having 
to  be  turned  into  a  temporary  hospital,  whilst 
the  staff  escaped  almost  entirely.  The  year 
of  the  League's  inception  the  position  was 
reversed,  and  whilst  the  children  escaped,  the 
staff — including  Dr.  Barnardo  and  the  newly 
appointed  Wardens — were  stricken  down  whole- 
sale. This  happened,  too,  early  in  the  year, 
before  the  ordinary  rush  of  Christmas  work 
had  been  dealt  with,  and  the  arrears  soon 
became  something  appalling. 

It  was  then  that  I  began  to  see  something 
of  the  Doctor's  astonishing  power  of  dealing 
with  difficulty.  His  customary  duties  and 
responsibilities  were  practically  countless,  and 
now  he  had  added,  to  an  already  overwhelm- 
ing list,  the  floating  of  this  new  scheme,  with 
all  its  complications  and  perplexities. 

But,  really,  he  might  almost  have  said  of 
difficulties,  "  The  more  the  merrier,"  and  the 
way  he  would  buckle  to  at  a  long  list  of  them 
was  a  thing  to  remember.  He  was,  indeed,  a 
marvel  of  quickness,  a  quality  not  always 
combined  with  the  power  of  concentration 
which  he  possessed  in  abounding  degree. 
And  so  it  was,  that  the  untiring  energy  and 
resourcefulness  of  the  Chief  carried  things 
through  without  any  serious  catastrophe,  and 
by  late  spring  matters  had  worked  out  fairly 
straight,  and  the  Young  Helpers'  League  was 
established  as  a  permanent  feature  of  the  work 
of  the  Homes. 

37 


But  although  the  League  escaped  coming  to 
grief,  as  by  a  miracle,  the  dangers  and  diffi- 
culties of  those  early  days  seemed  never- 
ending.  Preparing  and  distributing  suitable 
literature  and  printed  forms  of  many  kinds  ; 
drawing  up  a  code  for  workers,  paid  and 
voluntary  ;  finding  agents,  able  and  willing  to 
undertake  the  complicated  duties  assigned  to 
the  Wardens ;  keeping  the  central  office  in  touch 
with  such  a  host  of  scattered  workers — these, 
and  a  hundred  such  details,  were  perpetually 
under  consideration,  and  only  too  often  the 
final  decision  had  to  rest  with  the  overworked 
Head  of  it  all. 

It  was  this  state  of  things  which  brought  me 
into  such  constant  contact  with  Dr.  Barnardo, 
and  very  seldom  indeed  did  he  show  signs  of 
the  weariness  that  must  have  so  often  pos- 
sessed him.  But  it  was  not  long  before  my 
admiration  became  tinged  with  an  absorbing 
desire  to  relieve  him  as  much  as  possible. 
Quite  early,  I  discovered  not  only  the  truth 
of  what  he  had  said  as  to  not  becoming  case- 
hardened,  but  that  his  passionate  love  of 
children  made  him  peculiarly  sensitive  to  all 
interesting  items  concerning  them — pathetic 

38 


DR.  BARNARDO 

or  otherwise.  So,  I  took  to  reserving  letters 
of  the  specially  interesting  order,  from,  or 
about,  little  Leaguers,  to  show  him,  if  ordinary- 
business  was  extra  trying. 

On  one  occasion  I  recall,  he  was  so  jaded, 
after  a  long  and  worrying  day's  work,  in  the 
middle  of  summer,  that  he  fairly  snapped 
out  answers  to  my  alarming  list  of  queries. 
Then  suddenly  noticing  a  couple  of  letters 
lying  by  themselves  at  my  left  hand,  he 
swooped  down  upon  them,^with  a  decidedly 
irritable  : 

"  What's  this  ?  " 

Shall  I  ever  forget  the  change  on  his  ex- 
pressive face  as  he  read  !  The  first  was  from 
the  heartbroken  father  of  a  Young  Helper, 
enclosing  the  contents  (about  10s.)  of  the  little 
lad's  money-box. 

'*  His  last  wish  was  that  it  should  be  sent 
to  Dr.  Barnardo's  children,"  read  the  ex- 
planation. 

"  Poor  things  !  Poor  things  !  "  murmured 
the  Doctor.  Then,  to  me,  "  Did  you  know 
that  I  have  three  little  sons  in  heaven  ?  " 

I  did  know,  and  quite  understood  how  his 
heart  had  gone  out  to  the  stricken  parents. 
But  it  had  lifted  him  above  the  details  of  his 
everyday  work,  and  the  second  letter  com- 
pleted the  cure.  This  was  also  addressed  to 
me,  as  manager  of  my  special  department  of 
the  League,  by  a  very  tiny  Helper,  in  childish, 
wobbly  capitals,  and  as  far  as  I  can  recollect 
ran  thus  : 

39 


DR.  BARNARDO 

"  These  pennys  is  my  little  hen's  first  eggs 
and  they's  my  birfday  pesent  to  dear  Docker 
Dernarder." 

"  The  dear  child  !  "  he  exclaimed  delight- 
edly. "  You  did  write  her  one  of  your  nicest 
letters  ?  " 

I  acknowledged  to  having  done  my  best, 
and  then  remarked  : 

"  You've  never  lost  your  love  of  humour." 

"  If  I  had,  I  shouldn't  be  here,"  was  the 
prompt  reply.  "  Why,  my  friend,  if  it  weren't 
for  the  comedy  in  things,  the  tragedy  would 
kill  one — it  simply  couldn't  be  borne,  at 
least  not  by  anyone  coming  constantly  into 
contact  with  it,  as  I  do.  Believe  me,"  he  went 
on  gravely,  "  one  of  the  things  I  bless  God  for 
daily,  is  that  I've  got  the  Irishman's  love  of  a 
joke." 

And,  his  equanimity  quite  restored,  he  set 
to  with  a  will,  getting  through  my  long  list 
in  almost  as  short  a  time  as  it  would  have 
taken  an  ordinary  being  to  listen  to  its  reading. 

He  was  certainly  right  about  his  natural, 
abounding  love  of  fun,  and  given  two  workers 
of  equal  value,  his  choice  would  have  un- 
doubtedly lain  with  the  one  who  could  the 
better  enjoy  a  joke. 

On  the  one  occasion — years  later  on — when 
I  nearly  got  into  his  very  bad  books,  he  gave 
way,  by  private  wire,  on  a  point  I  considered 
of  vital  importance.  The  next  day  he  came 
into  my  room  and  treated  me  to  a  long  ex- 
hortation on  the  pig-headedness  (he  did  not 

40 


AS  I  KNEW  HIM 

use  that  particular  phrase,  but  meant  it)  of 
Woman  in  general  and  of  me  in  particular  ! 

When  he  had  quite  finished,  I  assumed  the 
meekest  air  I  could  command,  and  remarked  : 

''  Very  well.  Dr.  Barnardo  ;  I  will  do  my 
best  to  become  an  automatic  machine,  only 
I  don't  think  you  will  appreciate  the  penny- 
in-the-slot  business." 

Of  course,  he  accepted  the  challenge,  and 
after  a  brisk  play  of  words,  took  his  departure, 
without  the  farewell  about  which  he  was 
usually  so  particular.  A  moment  later  his 
head  appeared  round  the  opened  door,  as  he 
called  out  in  his  ordinary,  friendly  fashion  : 

'^You've  a  saving  sense  of  humour — I'll 
say  that  for  you  !    Good-bye,  till  next  time." 

That  Dr.  Barnardo  was  a  born  ruler  of  men 
(as  well  as  a  born  doctor,  and  organizer,  and  a 
few  other  things)  no  one  who  knew  him  could 
doubt  for  a  moment,  but  at  the  same  time  he 
greatly  preferred  those  of  his  subordinates 
who  understood,  and  understanding,  had  no 
fear  of  him.  He  had,  for  instance,  a  small  boy 
always  in  attendance  at  his  door,  to  show 
visitors  in  and  out,  and  to  take  messages  to 
the  various  offices.  About  the  appearance  of 
these  boys-in-buttons  he  was  very  particular, 
especially  as  to  clean  hands  and  faces,  and  I 
have  known  an  unhappy  scamper  sent  back 
two  or  three  times  to  complete  a  neglected 
toilet.  But  woe  betide  the  boy  who  cringed 
or  trembled,  at  least  after  the  first  freshness 
had  been  allowed  for,   unless,  indeed,  there 

41 


DR.  BARNARDO 

were  some  genuine  reason  for  distress.  One 
afternoon,  when  I  was  being  interviewed,  a 
new-comer  brought  a  note  for  the  Doctor,  in 
a  hand  that  could  not  steady  itself.  Im- 
mediately the  small  fingers  were  taken  into 
the  Chief's  comfortable  grasp. 

"  Cold  to  the  bone  !  "  he  exclaimed.  "  Go 
and  tell  your  matron  she  must  find  you  an 
overcoat  from  somewhere."  Then  to  me,  as 
the  boy  departed,  "  Fancy  sending  a  delicate 
little  chap  like  that  to  hang  about  on  such  a 
cold  evening  !  " 

One  lad  there  was,  undersized  and  very 
young-looking,  who  served  as  "  buttons  "  for 
quite  a  long  time,  and  who  so  thoroughly 
understood  the  Doctor's  ways  as  to  smile, 
undisturbed,  whilst  it  was  being  explained  to 
me  that  I  was  at  liberty  to  rule  him  with  a 
rod  of  iron.  Indeed,  so  useful  did  this  par- 
ticular boy  become  that  his  apprenticeship 
was  put  off  to  the  last  possible  moment,  until, 
in  fact,  the  Doctor  felt  and  said  : 

"  I  really  mustn't  stand  in  his  way.  Though," 
he  added,  "  I  admit  it's  a  bit  of  a  temptation. 
Some  of  the  boys  are  " — lowering  his  voice  to 
a  confidential  whisper — ''  such  little  duffers  !  " 

A  case  where  the  temptation  was  the  reverse 
came  my  way  about  this  time.  The  culprit, 
a  clerk  of  the  very  careless  order,  had  made  a 
great  muddle  of  a  piece  of  work  that  had 
some  connection  with  my  department,  and 
I  was  in  the  Board  Room  when  he  was  called 
up  to  give  an  account  of  himself.    I  tried  to 

42 


AS  I  KNEW  HIM 

signal  to  him  to  speak  up  clearly,  but  instead 
of  this,  he  mumbled  some  half-articulate 
excuse,  the  only  words  of  which  to  reach  the 
ears  of  the  Chief  were,  "  didn't  understand." 

Instantly  he  was  caught  up  with  an  indig- 
nant : 

"  '  Didn't  understand  '  ?  Why,  that's  just 
what  I'm  blaming  you  for.  I  didn't  suppose 
you  were  so  wicked  as  to  do  us  an  injury  on 
purpose.  But  it's  no  excuse  to  say  you  didn't 
know.  You  ought  to  have  known,  and  not 
have  messed  up  things  like  this." 

The  man  still  looked — ^though  he  certainly 
was  not — sulky  and  unrepentant,  and  I  held 
my  breath  as  Dr.  Barnardo  fairly  shouted 
out : 

'*  You  can  go,"  fearing  it  might  end  with, 
"  for  good  and  all." 

*'  As  much  as  I  could  do,  not  to,"  was  the 
Doctor's  reply  to  my  unspoken  thought — a 
habit  of  his  to  which  I  was  getting  inured. 
"  He  really  is  too  provoking.  But  he  shall 
have  another  chance  ;  only,  perhaps,"  with 
his  whimsical  expression,  "  he'll  be  safer  out 
of  my  way,  for  a  bit,  at  any  rate." 


48 


VI 

I  HAVE  already  mentioned  Dr.  Barnardo's 
wonderful  memory  for  faces,  which  at  first 
seemed  to  me  almost  eerie.  We  were  crossing 
the  Stepney  playground  one  day,  when  I  had 
only  been  there  a  few  weeks.  Turning  sud- 
denly to  a  group  of  three  elder  lads,  talking 
earnestly  near  the  staircase,  he  took  hold  of  one 
by  the  ear,  with  a  rapid  string  of  questions  : 

"  Who  are  you  ?  A  new  boy,  eh  ?  What's 
your  name,  and  how  old  are  you  ?  Speak  up 
—I'm  deaf." 

The  boy  responded,  but  with  a  certain 
hesitancy,  and  the  warning,  "  Now  mind,  no 
bad  language  here,"  was  evidently  not  un- 
heeded. 

"  How  could  you  tell  he  was  a  new  boy, 
out  of  three  hundred  ?  "  I  asked  when  we 
were  out  of  earshot. 

"  Oh,  I  always  know,  especially  with  the 
older  ones." 

"  And  could  you  hear  him  swear  ?  " 

*'  Why,  no,  of  course  not.  You  know  it  is 
only  a  few  people  I  can  hear  without  my 
trumpet,  but  I  could  see  he  was  doing  something 
he  knew  was  wrong." 

This,  too,  when  his  mind  seemed  full  of  the 

44 


DR.  BARNARDO 

usual  string  of  perplexities  I  had  been  un- 
folding, 

Another  time,  he  was  looking  through  a 
book  of  photographs  in  my  room,  and  pointing 
to  one,  of  a  curiously  deformed  child,  he 
enquired  : 

"  Do  you  know  that  girl — Mary  Smith  ? 
It's  a  peculiar  case,  from  a  medical  point  of 
view,"  and  he  proceeded  to  give  me  some 
details  that  certainly  were  very  unusual. 

"  But  surely,  she  died  at  the  beginning  of 
the  week  ?  "  I  interjected. 

"  Died  !  "  he  almost  shrieked.  ''  Died  ! 
No,  no  ;  they  would  have  been  certain  to  let 
me  know." 

And  I  only  saved  his  wiring  to  Bradford, 
by  suggesting  that  the  Mary  Smith  I  had  in 
mind  was  an  Ilford  child,  of  whose  death  he 
really  had  been  notified. 

"  Dear  me  !  "  he  exclaimed,  with  a  sigh  of 
relief.  "  You  did  give  me  a  turn — but  there, 
I  suppose  there  are  a  good  many  Mary  Smiths 
knocking  about !  " 

On  the  same  occasion  he  demanded  the 
presence  of  a  member  of  the  general  staff, 
responsible  for  the  illustration  blocks,  and 
pointing  to  a  certain  photo,  he  shook  his  head 
reproachfully. 

"  Now,  my  dear  fellow,  look  at  that !  The 
photo  was  used  last  March,  and  it's  never 
been  marked  off." 

"I'll  make  enquiries  at  once,"  was  the  reply. 
And,  in  an  undertone  to  me,  "  I've  no  doubt 

45 


DR.  BARNARDO 

he's  right.  I  would  always  trust  his  memory 
against  mine." 

Yet  another  instance  of  this  peculiar  gift 
of  his  came  under  my  notice,  when,  at  a  later 
date,  I  took  locum  work  for  a  matron  at  one 
of  the  Homes  for  Little  Incurables.  Hearing 
I  had  come  straight  from  London,  several 
of  the  children  clamoured  to  know,  "  When's 
Dr.  Barnardo  coming  to  see  me  ?  " 

"  See  2/ow,"  I  replied  to  the  chief  spokesman, 
"  why,  he  wouldn't  know  you  from  any  other 
little  knickerbocker  boy  ?  " 

"  Oh,  but  he  would.  Sister.  He  always  says, 
'  Where's  Tiny  Tim  ?  '  " 

"  Yes,  it's  quite  true,"  chimed  in  the  head 
nurse.  "  They  all  love  his  coming ;  even 
Blind  Maisie,  by  the  fireplace,  who  isn't  quite 
'  all  there,'  says,  '  Sweeties  '  if  she  hears  his 
name  ;  she  did  so  enjoy  the  peppermint  creams 
he  brought  her.  And  really,"  she  went  on, 
"  he  seems  to  know  every  child  by  name,  and 
the  whole  history  of  its  illness,  and  the  things 
that  have  been  tried  and  have,  or  haven't, 
done  any  good." 

It  so  happened  that  during  my  three  weeks' 
stay  at  this  Home,  two  of  the  elder  boys 
became  suddenly  much  worse,  and  passed 
away  within  a  few  hours  of  each  other.  Know- 
ing that  both  had  formerly  been  in  Her 
Majesty's  Hospital  I  went  across,  on  my  return, 
to  tell  Sister  Eva. 

"  Oh,  yes,"  she  said,  "  I  know  all  about  it. 
Dr.  Barnardo   sent  for  me  yesterday  about 

46 


AS  I   KNEW  HIM 

other  things,  and  just  as  I  was  leaving  he  said, 
'  By  the  way,  Dick  Grey  and  Studley  were 
your  boys.  Have  you  heard  they  were  both 
released  last  week  ?  '  Really,  he  is  a  wonder," 
she  continued,  "  he  seemed  to  know  just  as 
much  about  both  as  if  he  had  been  watching 
them  all  the  time,  and  you  know  it  is  over  two 
years  since  they  went  North." 

And  truly  he  felt  it  a  joy  and  reward  to  come 
into  personal  touch  with  any  of  his  adopted 
children.  I  was  present  once  when  he  had  been 
speaking  at  the  opening  ceremony  at  a  Home 
for  Cripples,  and  after  the  fuss  was  over  and 
the  guests  enjoying  a  cup  of  tea,  he  beckoned 
to  me  mysteriously.  I,  of  course,  responded, 
and  he  whispered — ^for  all  the  world  like  a 
schoolboy  in  mischief  : 

"  Come  in  here,  and  we'll  have  some  fun," 
leading  the  way  into  a  small  ward  on  the  ground 
floor,  which  happened  to  be  deserted  of  grown- 
ups, for  the  moment. 

He  shut  the  door  and  then  proceeded  to 
enjoy  himself  rapturously  and,  I'm  afraid  I 
must  admit,  rather  noisily.  One  little  fair- 
haired  boy  had  fallen  too  sound  asleep  to  be 
roused  by  noise,  and  as  he  lay,  his  head  on  his 
arm,  and  his  curls  falling  in  profusion  on  the 
pillow,  the  Doctor  broke  off,  to  point  him  out 
to  me,  with  an  enthusiastic  : 

"  There's  a   picture  !  " 

At  this  moment  the  child  half  awoke  and 
flung  himself  rather  too  far  over  the  bedside. 
In  an  instant  the  Doctor  was  by  him,  tenderly 

47 


DR.  BARNARDO 

— oh,  how  tenderly  ! — moving  the  Uttle  figure 
into  a  safer  position.  And  I  knew,  by  the 
expression  of  his  face,  that  the  act  was  sending 
his  thoughts  back  to  the  Uttle  lad  of  his  own, 
at  whose  death-bed  he  had  vowed  an  even 
deeper  devotion  to  the  cause  of  suffering 
childhood. 

As  he  straightened  himself,  his  eye  fell  on 
the  three-year  occupant  of  the  next  cot,  whose 
under  lip  showed  a  decided  tendency  to  quiver. 

"  What's  the  matter  ?  "  he  exclaimed 
anxiously.  "  Oh,  she's  not  got  a  doll.  Never 
mind  ;  don't  cry.  You  shall  have  a  beauty 
in  a  minute." 

And  running  to  the  door,  he  shouted  vigor- 
ously for  "  Nurse  "  to  come  to  the  rescue  of  a 
"  poor  little  doll-less  soul  "  ;  waiting,  too,  at 
the  risk  of  losing  his  train,  to  see  the  joyful 
clasping  of  tiny  arms  around  a  "  weal  baby." 

Another  time,  he  came  into  my  room  late 
one  Monday  evening. 

"  Eh,  what  brings  you  here  at  this  time  of 
night  ?  "  he  exclaimed  in  surprise.  "  I  would 
have  you  know,  I  don't  allow  my  ladies  to  be 
gadding  about  at  unholy  hours." 

"  Oh,"  I  replied,  "  you  needn't  be  afraid, 
I've  got  a  bed  close  by  for  to-night.  The  fact 
is  I've  been  down  to  Ilford  for  the  week-end, 
and  I  couldn't  tear  myself  away  in  time  to 
finish  up  here." 

"  And  didn't  you  enjoy  the  Village  ?  " 

"  That  I  did — indeed,  it  almost  made  me 
want  to  be  working  there  altogether." 

48 


AS   I  KNEW  HIM 

"  No,  no,  I  won't  have  any  of  that !  All 
the  same,  I  know  what  you  mean.  That's  the 
real  thing,  and  up  here  it's  just  dry  as  dust. 
Only  do  remember,"  laying  a  hand  on  my 
shoulder  and  all  but  shaking  me,  in  his  earnest- 
ness, "  do  remember,  this  is  really  helping,  as 
much  as  if  you  were  mothering  the  children 
all  day  long." 

And  here,  I  cannot  refrain  from  giving  the 
testimony  of  an  outsider  to  this  feature  in 
Dr.  Barnardo's  personality.  Quite  accident- 
ally I  came  across  a  former  member  of  a  com- 
mittee connected  with  a  provincial  Home,  and 
giving  his  first  impressions  of  the  Founder,  he 
said  : 

"  I  don't  mind  telling  you  now,  that  I  was 
dreadfully  disappointed  in  him  to  begin  with. 
I  really  don't  know  quite  why,"  with  a  laugh, 
''  but  I  believe  I'd  been  ass  enough  to  expect 
a  big  man  to  represent  such  a  big  cause,  and 
by  the  side  of  our  six  foot  three  chairman  he 
really  did  look  rather  insignificant.  And  then 
his  voice  was  husky — he  said  he  had  been 
speaking  too  much  on  the  top  of  a  bad  cold — 
and  his  deafness  made  him  seem  awkward, 
and  altogether  I  can  only  say  I  felt  downright 
upset.  But,  after  the  meeting  he  went  through 
the  wards,  and  when  I  saw  him  with  the 
children,  I  could  have  kicked  myself.  I  never 
saw  or  heard  anything  quite  so  beautiful,  and 
I  can  tell  you  this — I  learnt  a  lesson  then 
that  I  shall  never  forget  to  the  end  of  my  life." 


49 


VII 

But  although  always  delightful  when  in  per- 
sonal contact  with  his  children,  Doctor 
Barnardo  was  perhaps  only  to  be  seen  in  his 
full  glory  during  the  departure-time  of  a  party 
of  young  emigrants. 

He  came  into  my  room  one  afternoon, 
during  my  first  spring  at  Stepney,  wiping  his 
forehead  and  looking  thoroughly  exhausted. 
For  a  wonder  he  allowed  himself  to  be  made 
comfortable  in  the  office  arm-chair,  and  under 
the  influence  of  a  cup  of  tea  he  speedily 
revived. 

"  It's  the  saying  good-bye  to  so  many  that 
has  taken  it  out  of  me,"  he  remarked  presently. 

"  But  you  can't  have  said  good-bye  to  all 
the  three  hundred  odd  !  " 

"  Well,  I've  had  a  farewell  meeting  in  the 
schoolroom  and  shaken  hands  all  round,  but 
the  trying  thing  is  the  personal  good-byes. 
There  were  over  twenty,  mostly  big  lads  I 
knew  personally,  and  I've  had  a  good  talk 
with  each  one  alone.  It's  the  finest  chance  one 
can  get,"  he  went  on  thoughtfully,  "  their 
hearts  are  softened  now  as  they  seldom  are 
at  any  other  time,  and  I  feel  sure  that  three, 
at  least,  have  definitely  decided  this  afternoon, 
to  live  for  God  and  His  glory." 

50 


DR.  BARNARDO 

His  face  beamed  at  the  happy  thought,  for 
the  spiritual  side  of  his  work  always  held  first 
place  in  his  mind.  And  the  next  day,  when  he 
took  final  farewell  of  his  flock,  at  Paddington, 
I  fully  appreciated  the  special  handshakes  to 
this  trio,  and  could  almost  hear  his  whispered, 
"Stand  fast,"  "Be  strong,"  "Fight  the 
Good  Fight  " — some  of  his  favourite  watch- 
words for  young  "  soldiers  of  the  Cross." 

He  was  sometimes  able  to  accompany  an 
emigrant  party  to  Liverpool,  and  that  train- 
ride  he  certainly  did  enjoy  to  the  top  of  his 
bent.  One  time,  when  I  was  going  down  on 
business,  he  had  secured  a  bogie-train  for  a 
large  party  of  girls,  and  for  fully  three  hours 
he  gave  himself  up  to  personal  talks,  with  one 
and  another. 

In  order  to  catch  this  early  train,  the 
Doctor,  coming  up  from  the  other  side  of 
London,  had  only  been  able  to  manage  the 
scrappiest  of  breakfasts,  and  when  he  was 
ordering  luncheon  baskets  for  us — members 
of  the  staff — I  enquired  : 

"  And  what  about  yourself  ?  " 

"  Oh,  I'm  too  tired  for  anything  but  tea. 
But  now  mind,"  shaking  a  warning  finger  at 
me,  "  as  a  doctor,  I  strictly  forbid  you  to  rely 
upon  tea." 

"  Precept  v.  practice?"  I  suggested. 

"  Don't  cheek  your  boss,  if  you  please  I 
Ah,  here's  your  basket.  Now,  do  you  under- 
stand how  to  have  it  in  comfort  ?  " 

I  mildly  insinuated  that  I  had  not  been  in 

51 


DR.  BARNARDO 

the  habit  of  associating  comfort  with  a 
Company's  basket. 

*'  Just  let  me  show  you,"  and  he  actually 
proceeded  to  set  out  the  contents,  with  the 
skill  of  the  accomplished  waiter,  and  with  an 
absorption  suggesting  that  his  one  object  in 
life  was  to  make  the  best  of  an  alfresco  meal, 
under  difficulties. 

But  then,  that  was  eminently  characteristic 
of  the  man.  Whatever  he  undertook,  he  put 
his  whole  energy  into  it,  and  for  the  time, 
nothing  else  had  existence  to  his  conscious- 
ness— hence  the  fact  that  on  everything  he 
did,  however  small,  he  impressed  his  own  vivid 
personality. 

And  certainly  I  never  knew  anyone  else  half 
so  particular  as  to  the  personal  comforts  of  his 
staff — women  especially. 

**  Haven't  I  given  her  a  nice  little  home  ?  " 
he  asked  me  once,  referring  to  the  friend 
through  whom  I  had  originally  come  into 
the  work. 

"  That  you  have,"  I  replied  ;  ''  if  I  hadn't 
one  of  my  own,  I  should  be  half  tempted  to 
envy  her." 

''  Well,  when  people  do  such  good  work, 
they  deserve  a  good  home,  and  I  made  up  my 
mind  a  long  time  ago  that  she  should  have  it, 
when  it  could  be  managed." 

Then,  when  I  returned  to  Stepney  a  second 
time,  after  a  long  interval,  the  hospital 
dinner  was  no  longer  feasible,  but  the  Doctor 
had  given   orders   that    a    midday  meal  was 

52 


AS   I   KNEW   HIM 

to  be  served  in  my  own  office — a  very  large 

one. 

"  And  I've  told  them  to  treat  you  well," 

he  explained,  "so  be  sure  and  say,  if  it  isn't 

up  to  the  mark." 

As  a  rule,  the  Chief  was  not  at  Stepney  in 

a  morning,  but  it  happened  once,  that  having 

slept  in  town,  he  walked  into  my  room  about 

twelve  o'clock  for  a  "  good  long  talk  about 

everything." 

By  the  way,  he  apologized,  when  I  first  went, 

for  not  knocking  at  anyone's  door,   on  the 

score  of,  "  You  see,  I  shouldn't  hear  you  say, 

'  Come  in,' or 'Keep  off ! '" 
On  this  particular  occasion,  "  everything  " 

proved  such  an  exhaustive  subject,  that  time 

went  on  unheeded,  till,  happening  to  glance 

at  my  clock,  he  exclaimed  in  horror  : 

"  Why,  you  don't  mean  to  say  it's  nearly 

two  !  "    Then,  very  sharply,  "  When  do  they 

bring  your  lunch  ?  " 

"  About  a  quarter  to  one,  generally." 
"  Then  why  isn't  it  here  now  ?  " 
"  Why,  naturally,  because  the  Head  is." 
"  Nonsense,  nonsense,  I  can't  have  that." 
And   all   down  the   corridor   I   heard   him 

shouting  : 

"  Hall,  Hall,  where  are  you  ?    Take  up  Miss 

Neuman's  tray  at  once — and  mind  you  never 

keep  her  waiting  again." 

Hall  was  one  who  thoroughly  understood 

his  master,  and  as  he  put  down  my  tray,  he 

remarked,  with  a  smile  : 

53 


DR.   BARNARDO 

"  It's  to  be  brought  in  another  time,  what- 
ever happens !  " 

Another  day,  I  had  just  finished  tea  when 
Dr.  Barnardo  walked  in.  He  was  ahnost  off 
again  before  I  could  make  him  understand 
that  I  could  finish  my  remaining  half-cup  in  a 
second.  He  returned,  but  stood  aghast  at 
the  colour  of  the  fluid. 

"  Is  that  what  they  give  you  ?  "  he  de- 
manded sternly. 

"  Yes,"  I  replied  ;  "  at  last  I've  made  them 
understand  that  I  prefer  it  as  weak  as  possible." 

^'Oh,  well,  if  you  like  it  so!  /,"  with 
tremendous  emphasis,  "  prefer  tea  to  wash  !  " 
Then,  meditatively,  "  What  beats  me  is,  why 
you  trouble  to  pass  it  through  the  teapot !  " 

My  ridiculous  taste  made  a  distinct  im- 
pression on  him,  too,  and  more  than  once  he 
politely  enquired  whether  I  had  been  enjoying 
my  "  coloured  water  !  " 

The  terrible  stuff  he  drank  was  certainly  a 
great  contrast,  and  really  made  me  shudder, 
especially  when  he  took  to  having  it  without 
milk  or  sugar.  But  then  he  was,  undoubtedly, 
very  merciless  to  the  physical  side  of  his 
nature,  and  would  have  been  greatly  scan- 
dalized with  any  member  of  the  staff  who  had 
ventured  to  take  a  leaf  out  of  his  book. 

Hall,  as  has  been  said,  understood  the 
Chief's  little  ways,  but  this  is  more  than  could 
be  said  of  many  of  the  staff.  I  admit  frankly 
that  he  could  be  decidedly  alarming  on  occa- 
sion, sometimes  unconsciously,  but  not  seldom, 

54 


AS  I  KNEW   HIM 

of  intent — though  it  always  distressed  him  if 
the  latter  method  took  too  great  effect. 

''  Who  could  suppose  anyone  would  be  so 
absurd  ?  "  he  remarked  ruefully  one  day, 
when  he  had  lashed  a  ridiculously  "  sensitive  " 
young  man  to  the  verge  of  tears.  "  Well, 
what  do  you  want  to  say  ?  "  as  he  saw  me 
hesitate  before  replying. 

"  Only  this — if  people  have  the  misfortune 
to  be  born  with  immense  self-esteem  and  very 
little  ground  for  it,  are  they  to  be  held  re- 
sponsible ?  " 

"  Perhaps  not,"  reluctantly.  Then,  bright- 
ening up,  "  Only  I  wish  they'd  give  me  a 
precious  wide  berth  !  " 

Then  his  deafness  was  a  very  real  obstacle 
to  his  understanding  and  being  understood. 
For  not  only  was  his  hearing  affected,  but 
with  it  had  gone,  to  a  large  extent,  the  control 
of  his  voice,  so  that  he  frequently  did  not 
know  whether  he  was  whispering  or  shouting. 
I  have  heard  from  a  perfectly  reliable  source 
that  he  has  been  known  to  move  his  lips  for 
several  minutes,  without  any  resulting  sound 
— this  when  he  was  tired  out,  after  a  heavy 
day's  work.  I  cannot  say  this  was  my  ex- 
perience, though  I  have  often  known  him 
suddenly  drop  his  voice,  apparently  without 
rhyme  or  reason.  But  what  I  did  come  across 
several  times  was  far  more  distressing. 

At  a  large  public  meeting  in  a  provincial 
town,  for  instance,  the  platform  became  in- 
conveniently crowded.     During  an  interval, 

55 


DR.  BARNARDO 

Dr.  Barnardo  beckoned  to  one  of  his  boys  to 
come  up  to  him,  and  then  instead  of  the  in- 
tended whisper  came  a  sudden,  alarming  shout 
of: 

"  Take  those  chairs  away  at  once — right  out 
of  the  hall ! " 

The  effect  was  so  irresistibly  comic  that  the 
audience,  after  a  brief,  convulsive  clutch  at 
gravity,  broke  into  peals  of  laughter,  the 
situation  being  made  all  the  more  acute  by 
the  Doctor's  face  of  puzzled  surprise. 

I|have  mentioned  that  my  second  room  at 
Stepney  was  a  very  large  one.  It  was  also 
close  to  the  Board  Room,  and  I  was  frequently 
asked  to  let  his  special  callers  wait  their  turn 
in  my  domain.  One  afternoon,  a  young  girl, 
to  be  interviewed  for  a  vacant  post,  was 
sent  in  to  me  thus  and  from  the  little 
she  said  I  judged  that  she  was  feeling  very 
nervous  at  this,  her  first,  attempt  at  facing 
the  world. 

r"  Presently  I  became  aware  of  some  commo- 
tion in  the  corridor  outside.  Feet  paced  up 
and  down,  to  the  accompaniment  of  a  perfect 
hailstorm  of  what  might  well  have  been  taken 
for  the  bad  language  "  not  allowed  here." 

I  saw  the  girl  give  an  involuntary  shiver, 
and  remarked  quietly  : 

"  There's  nothing  to  be  afraid  of.  It's  only 
Dr.  Barnardo  asking  for  the  matches  !  He 
hasn't  the  slightest  idea  he  is  making  such  a 
noise." 

"  Oh,  thank  you,"  she  gasped.     '*  I  felt  I 

56 


AS   I   KNEW   HIM 

couldn't  go  in  to  see  him,  if  he  was  to  be  like 
that." 

Enter  Dr.  Barnardo,  smilingly  urbane,  and 
blissfully  unconscious  of  the  impression  he 
had  been  giving. 

It  was  on  account,  too,  of  this  disability, 
that  Council  meetings  were  apt  to  be  very 
trying.  He  insisted  at  these  Y.H.L.  functions 
that  the  Chief  Warden  should  sit  on  one  side 
of  him,  and  I  on  the  other,  we  being  the  two 
who  could  communicate  with  him  with  the 
greatest  ease,  but  his  eye  was  on  everyone, 
and  a  chance  remark  that  he  could  not  hear 
was  always  a  source  of  irritation.  On  one 
occasion  it  happened  that  I  was  greatly  ab- 
sorbed by  some  notes  I  could  not  decipher. 
When  I  [came  out  of  my  absorption,  it  was 
to  hear  Dr.  Barnardo  saying,  in  a  tone  I 
understood  to  be  covering  pent-up  annoy- 
ance : 

"  Miss  Dash,  I  can  see  you  speaking,  but 
I'm  too  deaf  to-day  to  hear  you,  even  with 
my  trumpet.  Will  you  kindly  repeat  your 
remark  more  loudl}''  ?  I  am  sure  it  is  too 
valuable  to  be  lost." 

The  unhappy  Warden,  who  really  had  taken 
the  opportunity  of  his  deafness  to  make  some 
irrelevant  remarks,  was  so  upset  at  this  un- 
expected request,  that  all  she  could  say  in  an 
agonized  undertone  was  : 

"  Oh,  what  did  I  say  ?  I  can't  remember. 
Help  me,  somebody,  please."  Then,  with  the 
courage  of  desperation,  "  Would  there  be  time 

57 


DR.   BARNARDO 

to  consider  the  question  of  officers'  forms 
before  I  have  to  leave  ?  " 

Needless  to  say,  the  query  had  to  be  passed 
on  by  me,  a  task  I  found  far  from  eas}^,  con- 
sidering that  the  original  remark  had  been  a 
groan  over  the  sudden  burst  of  heat,  under 
which  all  our  tempers  were  being  strained ! 

It  was  not  unnatural,  too,  to  find  that  many 
people  —  especially  those  unaccustomed  to 
dealing  with  the  deaf — quite  misunderstood 
him  when  they  found  that  he  could  sometimes 
hear  what  it  was  not  intended  he  should. 
As  a  fact,  the  rumbling  of  a  heavy  train  over 
the  arches,  a  few  yards  from  the  Board  Room, 
whilst  it  deafened  us,  made  his  hearing  almost 
acute,  whilst  he  was  as  ready  to  take  my  place 
at  the  telephone,  as  I  was  to  give  it  up. 

Then  the  particular  form  of  deafness  from 
which  he  suffered  was  affected  to  a  consider- 
able extent  by  general  health  and  external 
conditions,  so  that  on  a  "  good  "  day,  and  in 
quiet  surroundings,  he  was  quite  capable  of 
taking  the  uninitiated  by  surprise.  Since  I  be- 
gan writing  these  memories,  a  valued  member 
of  his  staff  was  telling  me  of  just  such  an 
experience.  The  Director  was  paying  her  a 
visit  at  her  own  home,  and  sat  by  the  fire, 
resting.  There  was  the  usual  long  list  to 
consult  him  about,  but  he  seemed  so  tired 

that  Mrs.  G remarked  to  her  husband,  in 

rather  an  undertone  : 

"  Had  we  not  better  leave  these  three  last 
things  and  not  trouble  him  about  them  ?  " 

58 


AS   I   KNEW   HIM 

To  her  dismay,  there  came  from  the  fire- 
place the  quiet  response  : 

*'  I  think  you  had  better  tell  me  all  about 
everything  !  " 

And  yet,  at  another  time,  they  might  have 
talked  in  his  presence,  to  any  extent,  without 
his  noticing,  unless,  indeed,  he  caught  sight  of 
any  movement  of  the  lips.  For  really  it  was 
by  this  movement  chiefly  that  he  understood 
the  few  people  with  whom  communication 
was  comparatively  easy.  As  soon  as  he 
turned  his  head  round — to  look  for  a  letter, 
say — he  had  no  idea  whether  or  not  I  was 
continuing  to  speak,  and  would  start  talking, 
quite  oblivious  of  the  fact  that  I  was  trying 
to  have  my  little  say. 

But  the  graver  possibilities  of  mistake  were 
brought  home  to  me  during  an  interview  in 
my  office,  between  Dr.  Barnardo  and  the 
representative  of  a  firm  of  printers,  or  illus- 
trators, I  am  not  sure  which.  But,  at  any  rate, 
the  visitor  was  most  anxious  to  secure  an 
order  for  a  particular  article,  as  to  which  the 
Doctor  hesitated.  Whilst  he  was  studying 
the  specimen  in  his  hand,  the  seller  remarked  : 

"  May  I  put  it  down  as  10,000  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  came  from  the  unconscious  Chief, 
"  that's  not  a  bad  style  at  all."  (I  believe  he 
was  not  in  the  least  aware  that  he  had  spoken 
aloud.)  "  Now,  what  were  you  saying  about 
those  smaller  things  ?  " 

I  had  seen  a  note  made  of  the  supposed 
order,  and  took  the  opportunity  of  the  Doctor's 

59 


DR.  BARNARDO 

attention  being  absorbed  by  the  fresh  samples, 
to  say  : 

''  If  you  are  under  the  impression  that  Dr. 
Barnardo  has  given  you  an  order,  you  are 
mistaken.  He  did  not  hear  you,  and  has  not 
given  you  an  answer,  one  way  or  the  other." 

The  man  looked  puzzled,  and  hardly  able 
to  believe  me ;  he  held  out  his  book  to  the 
Doctor,  enquiring  in  a  very  clear  tone  of 
voice  : 

"  This  is  your  order,  is  it  not,  sir  ?  " 

For  a  moment  the  Head  looked  puzzled. 
Then  came  an  avalanche  of  repudiation  : 

"  My  order  ?  Certainly  not.  I  never  gave 
you  an  order  at  all,  and  if  I  do  have  the  things, 
it  certainly  won't  be  in  that  particular  form." 

The  unfortunate  representative  hastened 
to  apologize,  and  did  succeed  in  getting  an 
order,  duly  ratified,  for  the  second  article,  the 
first  being  relegated  to  the  "  I'll  let  you  know  " 
shelf. 

Hardly  was  the  sinner  out  of  the  room  when 
Dr.  Barnardo  broke  forth  : 

"  A  queer  fellow  that !     Did  you  hear  him 
try  to  run  me  in  for  an  order  ?     And  yet  he 
seemed  a  decent  sort,  in  other  ways." 
*3^And  the  "decent  sort"  returned,  after  he 
judged  the  coast  to  be  clear,  to  say  : 

"  Please  excuse  me,  but  I  am  so  much 
obliged  to  you  for  putting  me  right.  If  you 
had  not,  that  order  would  have  been  put  in 
hand  to-night,  and,  of  course.  Dr.  Barnardo 
would  have  been  ready  to  swear  that  he  never 

60 


AS  I   KNEW   HIM 

sanctioned  it;   and  it  would  have  been  all  up 
with  me." 

"  But  did  you  not  notice  how  deaf  he  is  ?  " 
"  No — that's  the  queer  part  of  it.  My  elder 
brother  has  been  very  deaf  since  he  had 
scarlet  fever,  as  a  lad,  so  I've  been  used  to  it 
almost  all  my  life,  and  yet  it  never  once 
struck  me  that  that  was  why  he  kept  on 
breaking  into  what  I  was  saying." 

In  this  particular  case  no  special  harm  was 
done,  but  the  whole  thing  set  me  wondering 
how  often  the  Doctor  nmst  have  seemed  to  go 
back  upon  his  word,  when  there  was  nobody 
at  hand  to  put  matters  straight  for  him. 


61 


VIII 

The  Young  Helpers'  League,  growing  by  leaps 
and  bounds,  was  almost  immediately  in  need 
of  a  magazine  of  its  own,  apart  from  Night 
and  Day,  the  official  organ  of  the  Homes.  At 
the  time  of  its  inception,  my  ordinary  work 
was  quite  overwhelming,  and  it  was  not  till 
about  the  third  quarterly  number  that  the 
Doctor  claimed  my  promised  literary  help. 
It  soon  fell  to  my  share  to  prepare  the  whole 
of  each  number,  and  by  the  time  it  entered  on 
its  second  year,  the  magazine  had  nearly 
doubled  its  original  size,  and  had  become  a 
regular  monthly  feature  of  League  work — 
though  even  this  great  increase  hardly  sufficed 
to  deal  with  the  immense  numbers  of  activi- 
ties, which  more  than  justified  the  Chief's 
belief  in  youthful  enthusiasm. 

This  again  brought  me  into  constant  con- 
tact with  the  Head,  who,  at  the  commence- 
ment, accepted  sole  responsibility  for  making 
the  magazine  a  success.  Many  of  the  Wardens 
were  extremely  good  in  furnishing  interesting 
details,  notably  Mrs.  Evered  Poole,  the  Chief 
Warden,  whose  reports  were  really  delightful 
reading,  and  it  soon  became  evident  that  the 
magazine  had  taken  hold.     From  that  time 

62 


DR.  BARNARDO 

Dr.  Baruardo  contented  himself  with  final 
revision,  keeping  his  eye  wide  open  for  mis- 
takes, omissions,  or  dullness — ^the  latter  never 
failing  to  rouse  indignant  protest.  And  here 
his  wonderful  quickness  of  observation  came 
in  again.  A  discrepancy  in  facts  or  figures 
could  never  hope  to  be  overlooked,  whilst 
complaints — their  name  was  Legion  at  first — 
were  sure  to  find  their  way,  post-haste,  to  my 
overcrowded  desk. 

But  though  mistakes  annoyed  him  intensely, 
I  always  found  him  quite  willing  to  listen  to 
reasonable  explanation — indeed,  my  experi- 
ence throughout  was  that  though  quite  cap- 
able of  hasty  judgment,  he  was  also  equally 
capable  of  frankly  acknowledging  himself  in 
the  wrong.  Of  this  frankness  I  had  personal 
experience  many  times,  notably  on  one 
occasion,  when  I  had  been  ^ith  him  only  a 
few  months. 

Almost  from  the  beginning  I  had  been 
somewhat  handicapped  by  a  sort  of  indefin- 
able opposition  on  the  part  of  one  of  the 
principal  workers.  I  could  think  of  no  possible 
cause,  and  there  was  really  nothing  tangible 
to  "  talk  over  " — the  Doctor's  panacea  for 
all  misunderstandings.  I  did  not  know  him 
then  as  I  did  later  on,  and  it  was  indeed  a 
surprise  to  have  him  writing  thus,  at  the  end 
of  one  of  his  long  business  letters  : 

"  I  am  perhaps  most  of  all  troubled  about 
your  relations  with  N.  M.  ;  and  the  more  so 
as  I  think  /  am  principally  to  blame  for  what- 

63 


DR.  BARNARDO 

ever  misunderstanding  has  occurred.  For  in 
looking  over  my  original  letter  to  her — before 
you  had  appeared  on  the  scene — I  notice  that 
I  pointed  out  that  we  would  require  a  London 
official ;  but  I  .  .  .  foolishly  wrote  that  the 
chief  organization  of  the  whole  district  would 
be  on  N.  M.'s  shoulders,  that  she  would  be 
Chief,  untrammelled  in  any  way,  and  that 
the  London  worker  would  practically  be  her 
assistant ! 

"  Of  course,  I  now  see  that  all  this  was 
written  in  complete  ignorance  of  what  the 
requirements  of  the  League  would  be." 

But  for  this  generous  explanation  I  hardly 
think  the  misunderstanding  could  have  been 
put  right ;  as  it  was,  with  this  clue,  I  was 
able  to  adopt  a  line  that  ensured  our  working, 
as  we  did,  in  the  most  perfect  harmony. 

Another  instance  I  recall,  on  different  lines, 
of  the  Doctor's  willingness  to  be  "  set  right  " 
by  a  subordinate.  On  the  journey  to  Liver- 
pool, of  which  mention  has  already  been  made, 
after  satisfying  himself  that  my  meal  had  really 
been  "comfortable,"  he  settled  down  for  a 
business  chat,  beginning  with  his  favourite 
formula  : 

"  Now  you're  quite  wrong  about,"  etc. 

He  had  his  say — a  long  one — and  then 
allowed  me  my  innings.  This  was  followed  by 
the  usual  pause  for  quiet  thought,  the  verdict 
being  : 

"  I  hadn't  thought  of  it  in  that  light.  Very 
well ;   it  shall  be  as  you  wish." 

64 


AS  I  KNEW  HIM 

This  change  of  front  was  probably  in  his 
mind  when  he  walked  into  my  room,  one  after- 
noon in  the  following  week,  and  proceeded, 
without  explanation  or  introduction^  in  this 
fashion : 

"  And  what  do  you  know  about  the  Deputa- 
tion work  at  ?  "  naming  an  important 

north-country  town. 

"  I  know  that  splendid  work  is  being  done, 
under  great  difficulties." 

"  Oh,  it  is,  is  it  ?  What  do  you  make  of 
the  fact  that  members  of  the  local  committee 
are  always  resigning  ?  " 

"  No  wonder,  considering  how  the  place  has 
been  torn  asunder  with  factions." 

"  Well,  you're  a  fine  champion  !  "  he  ex- 
claimed, with  one  of  his  quizzical  glances. 
"  Now  go  on  and  tell  me  all  about  it." 

Nothing  loath,  I  "  went  on,"  showing  him 
the  other  side  of  the  story. 

He  listened  patiently,  and  then  sat,  rubbing 
his  ear,  in  a  way  I  understood  to  mean  vexed 
perplexity.    Presently  he  broke  out : 

"  And  how  do  you  account  for  my  having 
heard  such  a  different  version  ?  I  know  my 
informant  would  never  willingly  deceive  me 
or  anyone  else." 

"  No,  that  he  certainly  wouldn't,"  I  agreed 
heartily. 

In  a  moment  he  was  down  on  me,  with  a 
quick  : 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  '  he  '  ?  /  men- 
tioned no  names." 

£  65 


DR.  BARNARDO 

"  Indeed,  you  did  not.  I'll  put  it  in  this 
way.  Whoever  could  have  told  you  the  story 
in  that  form  simply  shows  his — her,  if  you 
prefer— complete  lack  of  comprehension  of 
the  present  state  of  affairs  in  that  particular 
town,  and  also  an  utter  want  of  sympathy 
with  the  difficulties  of  a  Deputation  under 
those  special  circumstances." 

''  Oh,  indeed.  And  pray,  how  do  you 
understand  it  all  so  clearly  ?  " 

*'  Well,  it  so  happens  that  I  have  three  sets 
of  friends  living  in  the  place,  and  I've  been 
pretty  well  posted  up  in  its  tribulations.  And 
as  to  the  Deputation  ..."  Here  I  came  to 
a  full  stop,  and  under  the  Doctor's  piercing 
gaze,  the  colour  began  to  come  into  my  face. 

*'  Ah,  what's  all  this,  my  lady  ?  "  he  ex- 
claimed, rubbing  his  hands  in  glee.  "  You've 
all  but  let  the  cat  out  of  the  bag.  Now  just 
own  up." 

*'  Well,  it  isn't  much  to  own  up  to.  Only 
I  wanted  really  to  understand  Deputation 
work,  and  so  I've  been  taking  Y.H.L.  War- 
den's meetings  in  my  holiday." 

'*  You  have  ?  That's  a  nice  way  of  getting 
a  rest.    Holidays  are  not  meant  for  work." 

*'  No  ?  "  I  remarked  innocently.  "  I  did 
think  I  heard  of  meetings  being  arranged  for 
on  the  East  Coast." 

'*  Now,  now — I  don't  want  any  of  that. 
And  for  goodness'  sake,  do  remember  that 
I'm  your  warning,  not  your  example.  But 
to  come  back  to  business.     In  the  case  we 

66 


AS   I   KNEW   HIM 

started  with,  you  do  really  think  good  work 
is  being  done,  and  you  have  positive  grounds 
for  your  belief  ?  " 

''  I  do,  and  I  have." 

''  All  right— I  shan't  forget." 

And  at  the  time  of  his  death  that  Deputa- 
tion was  still  doing  invaluable  work  for  the 
Homes. 


67 


IX 

The  League  celebrated  its  first  birthday  by  a 
grand  bazaar  at  St  James's  Hall.  For  the 
previous  fortnight  or  three  weeks  the  staff 
was  driven  nearly  frantic  by  the  extra  work 
of  preparation  for  this  function,  added  to  an 
almost  incredible  number  of  enrolments  of 
Companions,  new  and  old,  with  a  vast  amount 
of  consequent  clerkage — this  too,  at  the  time 
of  year  when  the  ordinary  work  of  the  Homes 
is  at  its  heaviest. 

The  Christmas  holiday  had  to  be  of  the 
briefest.  On  Christmas  Eve  the  male  staff 
worked  till  nearly  eleven  o'clock,  and  when 
they  did  get  off  it  was  to  find  the  fog  so 
intense  that  ordinary  traffic  had  been  quite 
suspended.  Some  of  them  had  to  creep  home, 
in  cold  and  darkness,  and  the  one  train  that 
did  succeed  in  getting  to  Stepney  station 
crawled  away,  every  inch  of  standing  room 
fully  occupied. 

And  day  after  day  the  fog  lasted,  even  the 
West  End  being  so  benighted  that  no  one 
knew  when  Royalty  drove  up  to  the  Hall. 
By  this  time  I  had  become  fairly  desperate, 
especially  as  acute  family  anxiety  made  it  all  but 
impossible  for  me  to  leave  home  for  any  length 

68 


DR.  BARNARDO 

of  time.  But  I  did  manage  to  get  to  the  Hall 
— the  journey  taking  quite  four  times  as  long 
as  usual — before  the  opening  hour,  and  was 
shocked  to  see  Dr.  Barnardo  going  slowly  up 
the  stairs,  pausing  between  every  step,  his 
face  looking  quite  pinched,  and  with  a  distress- 
ing blue  shade  round  the  mouth.  (I  did  not 
know  that  even  then  he  suffered  considerably 
from  heart  weakness.)  When  he  got  to  the  top 
he  paused,  gasping  for  breath  ;  then,  noticing 
my  anxiety,  he  summoned  up  a  smile  and  a 
whispered  ''  All  right  in  a  minute." 

He  was  speedily  so  far  "  right  "  as  to  be 
able  to  enquire  : 

"  What  are  you  doing  with  the  work  ?  " 

"  I  am  seeing  to  all  the  important  corre- 
spondence myself,"  I  replied. 

"  Ah,  that's  a  relief  !  But  what  about  the 
rest  ?  " 

"  I  really  can't  say.  With  such  a  staff  it  is 
simply  impossible  to  meet  the  rush." 

''  How  many  extras  do  you  want  ?  " 

"  Eight  at  least." 

And  the  next  day,  that  number  of  additions 
had  been  squeezed  into  the  long-suffering 
general  office. 

And,  curiously  enough,  that  bazaar  was  not 
the  utter  fiasco  it  promised  to  be.  Dr.  Bar- 
nardo pulled  himself  together,  in  his  own 
mysterious  fashion,  and  kept  a  smiling  face. 
His  efforts  were  backed  up  by  our  beaming 
opener,  H.R.H.  Princess  Mary  of  Teck,  who 
sat  on  the  platform,  the  very  picture  of  happy 

69 


DR.  BARNARDO 

good-will.  Their  lead  could  hardly  but  be 
followed,  and  it  was  something  to  hear  on  all 
sides,  "  Well,  I  have  enjoyed  myself  !  " 

But  the  weather  really  was  in  one  of  its 
very  worst  moods,  and  early  in  the  new  year 
snow  and  frost  were  added  to  the  delights  of 
an  unlifting  fog.  The  roads  became  so  in- 
tensely slippery  that  getting  about  was  more 
difficult  than  I  ever  remember,  before  or  since, 
and  if  my  presence  had  not  been  so  essential 
I  should  have  considered  the  journey  to  Step- 
ney— fifteen  stations,  with  two  changes — an 
impossibility.  Then,  in  the  second  week  in 
January,  in  returning  home,  my  foot  slid  from 
under  me,  and  I  fell  heavily  backwards, 
striking  my  head  violently  against  a  project- 
ing brick  wall.  At  the  time  I  had  not  the  least 
idea  of  real  injury,  but  the  next  day,  when  I 
went  to  the  hospital  as  usual.  Sister  called  out 
at  sight  of  my  (most  unusually)  pale  face,  and 
insisted  on  my  lying  down  during  the  dinner- 
hour.  Reviving  a  little,  I  managed  to  get  back 
to  work,  in  spite  of  medical  protest.  So  it 
went  on  till  the  Wednesday,  when  Dr.  Bar- 
nardo,  who  had  been  away,  lecturing,  came 
into  my  room,  exclaiming  : 

"  What's  this  I  hear  ?  Milne  "  (the  head  of 
the  hospital  staff)  "has  just  been  telling  me 
you've  no  business  to  be  here."  Then,  as  he 
took  my  hand  in  his,  "  Is  that  all  you  can  do 
in  the  way  of  a  shake  ?    Try  again." 

I  obeyed,  but  with  such  poor  results  that 
we  looked  at  each  other  in  dismay.     Imme- 

70 


AS   I   KNEW   HIM 

diately  all  other  thoughts  were  dismissed  from 
his  mind,  and  sitting  down  quietly  he  made 
me  tell  him  the  history  of  the  accident. 

''  You  must  stop  all  work  at  once,''  was  his 
decree. 

''  But  how  can  I  ?  There  is  so  much  nobody 
else  understands,  that  if  I'm  away  altogether 
they  can't  help  getting  into  a  muddle." 

"  Then  they  must,"  was  the  inexorable 
reply.  "  Now,  mind,  there's  no  '  if  '  about  it. 
You  go  straight  home  and  see  your  own 
doctor,  and  you  are  to  do  whatever  he  advises." 

There  was  no  going  against  such  downright 
orders,  and  "  he "  advising  complete  and 
immediate  rest,  I  managed  to  get  away,  and  to 
bed  for  a  fortnight.  The  charm  worked  so 
well  that  I  was  able  to  report  on  very  satis- 
factory lines,  and  during  the  second  week  the 
Doctor  broached  the  subject  of  my  increasing 
the  number  of  my  weekly  attendances  at 
Stepney,  though  it  was  just  like  him  to 
explain  : 

"  Please  understand  there  is  not  intended 
in  this  one  word  of  criticism  ;  for  I  well  know 
that  you  have  come  .  .  .  when  you  ought  to 
have  kept  away "  (referring  to  domestic 
anxieties),  "  and  although  I  have  not  expressed 
this  feeling  before,  I  would  not  .  .  .  allow 
this  to  go  without  saying  that  I  have  felt  very 
grateful  to  you." 

And  the  letter  concludes  with  this  aspira- 
tion : 

''  God  give  us  both,  wisdom,  and  all  needed 

71 


DR.  BARNARDO 

grace  for  His  work ;  for,  after  all,  without 
His  guidance  and  direction  we  shall  be  but 
foolish  children,  groping  in  the  dark,  crying 
for  the  light  and  finding  it  not." 

Reluctant  as  I  felt  to  give  up  my  work  at 
Dr.  Barnardo's  I  could  not  see  my  way  to 
putting  in  more  attendances,  but  I  temporized 
by  suggesting  that  the  matter  might  wait 
until  we  could  talk  it  over  together.  The 
Doctor  was  by  no  means  devoted  to  the  word 
"  wait,"  but  in  this  case  he  agreed  to  my 
suggestion  with  a  good  grace. 

I  returned  just  in  time  for  an  important 
Council  meeting,  as  to  which  I  had  had  a  few 
volumes  of  minute,  and  not  always  easily 
understood,  instructions.  Just  as  I  was 
leaving  my  office  for  the  Board  Room,  in  flew 
Dr.  Barnardo. 

"  How  are  you  ?  Why,"  in  a  tone  of  joyful 
surprise,  *'  you're  quite  well !  " 

"  I  thought  I  told  you  I  was." 

"  Yes,  I  know  you  did,  but  I  could  hardly 
believe  it.  You  could  hurt  my  hand  now,  I 
expect.  Dear  me  !  What  a  lot  of  recupera- 
tive power  you  must  have  !  " 

But  all  the  same,  I  caught  his  medical  eye 
wandering  towards  me  from  time  to  time,  and 
when  the  protracted  meeting  was  over,  I  was 
exhorted  to  go  straight  home  and  rest.  It 
certainly  was  often  a  great  boon  to  his  staff 
that  their  Head  was  a  medical  man  and 
always  ready  to  give  the  physical  due  attention. 
One  winter,  I  recollect,  influenza  had  been  very 

78 


AS  I   KNEW   HIM 

busy,  and  I  was  amongst  many  of  the  staff 
victims.  Unfortunately  the  heaviest  magazine 
of  the  year  had  to  be  tackled  before  I  was 
really  fit  for  such  a  piece  of  work  ;  but  it  got 
done  to  time,  and  I  was  just  giving  myself  a 
mental  stretch,  when  the  Doctor  came  in, 
with  a  : 

"  Now  I  want  a  long  business  talk  with  you. 
How  are  you  ?  " 

"  Oh,  much  better." 

"  Then  we'll  begin.  Sit  there,  near  me  ;  I 
seem  extra  deaf  to-day."  Then,  as  I  took 
the  seat  indicated,  facing  the  light : 

"  Why,  you're  not  a  bit  right.  Your  eyes 
should  never  look  like  that." 

"Oh,"  I  replied,  "I  think  that's  chiefly 
from  looking  so  closely  at  the  magazine 
work." 

"  Is  the  magazine  done  ?  " 

"  Yes,  and  gone  to  the  printer's  this  after- 
noon." 

"  That's  right !  You're  a  brick  !  But  now, 
what  about  yourself  ?  Are  you  under  a 
doctor  ?  " 

*'  Yes,  he  doesn't  consider  me  off  his  books 
yet." 

"  And  what  does  he  say  ?  " 

"  Only  that  I  want  a  change." 

"  Well,  and  why  on  earth  don't  j^ou  take 
it  ?  I'm  not  going  to  talk  business  with 
anyone  like  you.  Now,  just  go  off  to-morrow 
and  tell  Smith  when  you're  coming  back." 

"  Naturally  !  "   was   ''  Smith's  "  comment, 

73 


DR.  BARNARDO 

"  I  knew  you'd  be  sure  to  be  sent  off,  as  soon 
as  he  set  eyes  on  you." 

But  this  same  Mr.  Smith  was  quicker  at 
giving  advice  than  at  taking  it.  There  came 
a  time  when  he  saw  fit  to  work  at  such  high 
pressure  that  I  brought  all  my  nurse-authority 
to  bear — in  vain,  of  course. 

The  next  time  Dr.  Barnardo  paid  me  a  visit 
he  was  in  a  great  state  of  mind. 

"  Dear  me  !  Dear  me !  "  pacing  up  and  down 
in  caged  wild-animal  fashion.  "  This  is  too 
bad  about  Smith.  Do  you  know  "  (sternly, 
and  as  though  I  were  the  cause)  "  how  very  ill 
he  is  ?  " 

I  expressed  regret,  which  passed  unheeded. 

"I  believe  he's  been  overworking."  (Sorry 
as  I  felt,  I  could  not  refrain  from  a  passing 
thought  as  to  the  pot's  compliments  to  the 
kettle.)  Then,  with  positive  fierceness,  "  You 
will  all  do  it,  but  you  shall  not  in  future.  Poor 
fellow !  I  only  hope  it  isn't  really  serious.  His 
temperature's  very  high  and  he's  quite  de- 
lirious. Now,  just  listen  to  me."  (As  though  I 
could  do  anything  else!)  "This  fashion  of 
working  too  hard  and  too  long  has  got  to  be 
dropped.  I  won't  take  the  responsibility  if 
you  all  will  work  beyond  your  strength.  He 
ought  not  to  have  done  it.  He  isn't  really 
strong.  I'd  rather  all  his  work  had  come  to 
grief  than  have  this  happen.  And  when  he 
comes  back,  do,  please  do,  pull  him  up  if  he 
tries  it  on  again." 

And  so  on,   and  so  on,   his  real   distress 

74 


AS   I   KNEW   HIM 

making  him  glad  to  have  found  a  safety-valve. 
But  I  fancy  if  there  were  any  passers-by  in 
the  corridor,  at  that  particular  moment,  they 
must  have  put  it  down  as  a  case  of  a  right- 
down  good  scolding. 

Equally  distressed,  though  in  quieter  mood, 
he  looked  in  another  day,  to  ask  : 

"  Do  you  know  Mrs.  D ?  " 

"  Only  by  name,  but  I've  heard  that  she 
and  her  husband  have  been  devoted  workers 
in  the  Homes,  almost  from  the  first." 

"  That  they  have,"  he  responded  warmly. 
"  And  now,  poor  soul !    I  hear  she  is  likely  to 

have   to   go   through  "    (naming  a  very 

dangerous  operation).  "  I'm  getting  Dr.  Milne 
to  take  her  to  a  specialist,  but  it  must  be  a 
dreadful  time  for  them  both."  Then,  as  he 
went  out,  "  Be  sure  you  don't  forget  to  pray 
for  them." 

Next  day,  a  very  bright  face  told  of  good 
news,  before  the  words  were  out : 

"  A  false  alarm  !  She's  pretty  bad,  of  course, 
but  nothing  that  ordinary  treatment  oughtn't 
to  meet.  Anyway,  there's  no  need  for  an 
operation." 

And  another  incident  comes  to  my  mind, 
illustrating  the  wideness  of  his  sympathies. 
The  young  son  of  a  clerical  member  of  the  staff 
was  found  to  have  injured  one  of  his  fingers, 
unconsciously,  and  without  attracting  attention 
at  the  time.  When  taken  for  hospital  advice 
the  examining  surgeon  suggested  an  operation 
that  would  restore  power,  but  would  involve 

75 


DR.  BARNARDO 

permanent  stiffness  of  both  joints.  The  mat- 
ter was  mentioned  incidentally  to  the  Chief 
(I  think  in  consequence  of  the  father's  asking 
for  leave  of  absence). 

"  Bring  the  child  to  see  me,"  he  exclaimed 
at  once.  "  I  don't  like  the  idea  of  his  being 
disfigured  for  life." 

He  was  brought,  and  after  a  careful  ex- 
amination, in  my  office,  Dr.  Barnardo  ex- 
claimed triumphantly  : 

"  It  seems  to  me  it  needn't  be  done  as  he 
suggests.  Anyway  I'll  get  Cheyne  to  look  at 
it."  With  the  result  that  a  different  opera- 
tion, performed  at  Her  Majesty's  Hospital, 
restored  power,  without  causing  disfigurement. 

A  little  incident  connected  with  this  affair 
is  very  suggestive  of  Dr.  Barnardo's  tender 
ways  with  children.  Whilst  examining  the 
hand,  he  knitted  his  brows  and  studied  the 
case  so  intently,  that  the  boy — a  nervous  little 
fellow — brought  into  such  close  contact  with 
what  looked  like  severity,  showed  such  unmis- 
takable signs  of  a  breakdown,  that  I  involun- 
tarily gave  his  head  a  reassuring  pat. 

A  half-angry  exclamation  rose  to  the 
Doctor's  lips,  then,  catching  sight  of  the  little 
face,  all  on  the  quiver,  his  own  took  on  its 
sweetest  expression,  and  lifting  the  child  on 
his  knee,  he  exclaimed,  in  a  tone  of  gentlest 
raillery  : 

"  Why,  you're  never  afraid  of  me,  the  father 
of  the  very  largest  family  in  the  whole  world  ? 
Yes,  you  may  well  open  your  eyes.    You  ask 

76 


AS   I   KNEW   HIM 

that  lady  if  I  haven't  got  more  boys  and  girls 
to  lookjafter  than  any  other  man  on  earth. 
And  that  means  that  I  wouldn't  hurt  anyone 
else's  little  boy,  why,  not  if  you  were  to  give 
me  all  those  pennies  in  your  pocket !  " 

The  tone  perhaps,  more  than  the  argument, 
entirely  allayed  the  patient's  fears,  and  nestling 
his  head  against  his  doctor's  encircling  arm, 
he  held  out  a  diminutive  hand,  with  the  con- 
fidence of  the  child  who  feds  himself  in  safe 
keeping. 


77 


X 

I  NEED  hardly  say  that  the  idea  of  giving  up 
Dr.  Barnardo's  work  was  a  very  distressing 
one  to  me,  and  yet  I  felt  that  he  was  abso- 
lutely in  the  right  as  to  its  being  imperative 
that  every  department  should  have  a  chief, 
always  in  evidence. 

I  had  been  racking  my  brains  for  some 
solution  of  the  problem,  and  had  even  got  the 
length  of  a  half-promise  to  try  daily  attend- 
ance, when  the  question  was  settled  by  the 
renewed  illness  of  my  mother.  She  had  never 
really  been  the  same  after  an  attack  of  in- 
fluenza during  my  first  winter  at  Stepney,  and 
now,  in  early  spring,  a  second  attack,  though 
slight  in  itself,  had  brought  her  into  a  con- 
dition of  immediate  danger. 

On  a  certain  Thursday  I  was  summoned  to 
the  Board  Room  for  discussion  of  an  accumu- 
lation of  details,  and  by  the  end  of  our  talk 
my  voice  threatened  to  depart  altogether.  At 
last,  taking  up  his  detested  trumpet,  the  Chief 
enquired  testily : 

"  What's  the  matter  with  you  ?  Why  can't 
you  talk  as  usual  ?    Have  you  got  a  cold  ?  " 

"  Oh,  no  ;  I  think  it's  only  that  I  haven't 
really  been  in  bed  since  Monday," 

In  a  second  he  was  all  sympathy,  but  it 

78 


DR.  BARNARDO 

struck  me  that,  even  for  him,  enquiries  as  to 
detail  were  peculiarly  minute — I  understood 
later  that  the  symptoms  I  described  reminded 
him  of  the  sword  that  was  beginning  to  hang 
over  his  own  head.  And  never  till  the  time  I 
left  did  he  fail  to  ask  with  real  interest  as  to 
my  patient's  progress. 

"  And  what  about  my  own  position  ?  "  I 
enquired. 

"  Well,  all  I  can  say  is,  that  for  the  present 
you  must  not  leave  her,  unless  the  doctor 
orders  a  nurse  {aside)  (I  can't,  for  the  life  of 
me,  think  why  he  doesn't !).  She  has  an  in- 
valuable maid,  you  say.  Well,  you  must  do 
the  best  you  can  with  her  help.  Let  me  know 
if  there's  any  change." 

"  And  as  to  my  work  ?  A  good  deal  I  can 
do  at  home,  of  course,  but  there's  nobody  to 
take  my  place  in  the  office." 

"  Have  you  told  Odling  and  the  others  ?  " — 
naming  some  of  the  heads  of  departments. 

"  No,  as  a  fact  I  haven't  spoken  of  it  to 
anyone." 

"  Do,  then  ;  and,"  proudly,  "  you'll  see  the 
sort  of  staff  I've  got.  Now,  don't  bother  about 
things  here.  We'll  do  without  you  all  right, 
for  a  bit.  Cheer  up.  You  know  where  to 
look  for  strength.  And  be  sure  you  get  all  the 
rest  you  possibly  can." 

As  I  left  the  Board  Room  I  ran  across  the 
general  secretary  ("Odling")  and  took  the 
Doctor's  advice  about  telling  him  of  my 
position.     As  quickly  as  his  Chief,   he  threw 

79 


DR.  BARNARDO 

himself  into  the  breach,  promising  to  keep  an 
eye  upon  things  in  general,  and  to  act  as 
referee  to  Mr.  Brown,  who  was  by  this  time 
quite  able  to  attend  to  the  routine  work  with- 
out supervision. 

By  the  end  of  the  following  week,  things  had 
so  far  improved  that  I  ventured  to  put  in 
an  appearance  at  the  office,  only  to  be  wired 
for  an  hour  after  my  arrival.  I  found  that  a 
serious  turn  for  the  worse  had  taken  place,  and 
from  that  time  I  never  had  any  hope  of 
permanent  recovery.  My  earnest  plea  to  the 
Doctor  was  to  find  my  successor  as  soon  as 
possible  ;  but,  for  the  first  time,  I  thought 
him  a  trifle  unkind,  in  that  he  took  things 
in  very  leisurely  fashion.  Then  I  discovered 
that,  not  knowing  my  mother's  extraordinary 
vitality,  he  considered  it  could  only  be  a 
matter  of  a  very  few  weeks,  and  had  planned 
in  his  own  mind  that,  after  a  thorough  rest,  I 
should  return  to  take  up  whole-time  duties. 

But  it  was  not  to  be,  and  he  at  length 
inserted  such  an  advertisement  for  my  suc- 
cessor, that,  as  the  general  secretary  re- 
marked, "  No  one  would  have  the  face  to 
answer !  "  A  good  many  people  thought  differ- 
ently, though  I  must  admit  that  the  majority 
repudiated  a  large  percentage  of  the  specified 
qualifications. 

In  the  meanwhile  I  was  dragging  on,  going 
to  Stepney  as  often  as  possible,  but  frequently 
unable  to  leave  home  for  days  together,  and 
then   it   was  that   I   understood   our  Chief's 

80 


AS   I   KNEW  HIM 

pride  in  his  workers.  Never  shall  I  forget  their 
sympathy  and  its  practical  expression.  Over 
and  over  again  I  was  begged  to  go  home  and 
"  leave  the  letters  to  me,"  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  would-be  deputy  was  already  more 
than  busy  on  his  own  account.  Mr.  Brown 
and  his  juniors  also  came  out  grandly,  and 
from  neighbouring  offices  came  a  succession 
of  "  good  cups  of  tea." 

And  how  delighted  was  the  Doctor  when  I 
dilated  on  the  kindness  of  his  staff ! 

"  Ah,  I  knew  you'd  say  so.  They  are  a 
good  lot.  Though,"  with  mysterious  comi- 
cality, "  I  don't  always  tell  them  so  !  " 

I  am  not  altogether  sure  that  it  might  not 
have  been  more  encouraging  to  some  of  them 
if  he  had  let  his  appreciation  be  more  ap- 
parent. 

I  happened  to  learn  incidentally  that  a 
certain  member  of  the  staff  was  feeling  some- 
what depressed  over  his  comphcated,  but 
monotonous,  duties  ;  and  I  know  it  would 
have  helped  him  greatly  if  he  could  have 
heard  the  Doctor's  emphatic  : 

"  He's  a  diamond,  a  real  diamond,  even  if 
some  people  do  think  him  a  rough  one. 
Well,  what  are  your  evebrows  going  up 
about  ?  " 

"  Because  I  can't  imagine  how  anyone  can 
say  such  a  thing.  I  have  always  found  him 
as  pleasant  and  courteous  and  ready  to  help 
as  any  of  the  others." 

"Good  !  Good  !  "  with  his  satisfied  chuckle, 

F  81 


DR.  BARNARDO 

"  But  as  to  what  people  '  say,'  I've  long 
ago  given  it  up  as  hopeless." 

Of  the  circle  of  those  who  worked  with  him 
most  closely  he  often  spoke  to  me,  as  occasion 
offered,  and  always  gave  them  full  credit  for 
their  large  share  in  the  success  of  the  work. 

About  the  first  Chief  Warden,  the  late  Mrs. 
Evered  Poole,  he  wrote  a  full  sheet,  in  re- 
sponse to  some  remarks  of  mine,  winding  up 
with  : 

"  I  might  go  to  work  for  years  and  not 
find  such  another  as  she  is." 

On  one  occasion  I  was  admiring  the  work 
of  my  editorial  colleague  when  the  Doctor 
chimed  in  : 

"  Clever  !  I  should  think  he  is  clever.  I'm 
lucky  to  have  such  a  brain  at  my  beck  and 
call !  "  . 

Entirely  misunderstanding  a  remark  of  mine, 
and  considering  it  a  reflection  on  the  probity 
of  the  general  secretary,  he  flung  at  me  an 
indignant : 

"  He's  true  to  the  backbone.  The  truth,  the 
whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth — 
that's  what  you'll  always  get  from  Odling  !  " 

And  referring  to  a  man  who  had  just  left 
the  Board  Room,  and  who  had  the  happy 
knack  of  reassuring  him  when  his  deafness 
put  him  on  tenter-hooks,  he  remarked  : 

"  A  treasure  he  is — as  reliable  as  they 
make  them,  and,"  with  a  half -unconscious 
sigh,  "  so  quiet. ^^ 

The  last-named  attribute  was  certainly  not 


AS  I  KNEW  HIM 

amongst  the  Doctor's  many  virtues,  and 
greatly  as  I  loved  and  admired  him,  I  have 
often  known  what  it  was  to  wish  him  a  trifle 
less  of  a  whirlwind. 

During  my  last  summer  at  Stepney,  the 
Director,  speaking  about  the  work  of  the 
valued  heads  of  one  of  the  most  important 
of  the  branch  Homes,  interrupted  himself  to 
ask : 

"  Do  you  know  their  daughter  ?  " 

"  Yes,  a  little.  She  strikes  me  as  particu- 
larly promising.  I  shouldn't  at  all  mind 
having  her  in  my  office ! " 

"  I  dare  say  you  wouldn't,  and  really  I 
should  like  to  let  you  train  her  ;  but  she's 
better  at  home,  and  besides,"  with  one  of  his 
mischievous  looks,  "  I  don't  know  that  I 
could  spare  her ;  for,"  mysteriously,  "  I'm 
beginning  to  give  her  quite  confidential  work 
of  my  own." 

"  She's  rather  young  for  that,  isn't  she  ?  " 

'* Surely — as  far  as  anno  Domini  goes;  but 
she's  worth  half  a  dozen  ordinary  people  twice 
her  age.    She's  going  to  be  fine,  I  tell  you." 

A  forecast  that  was  on  its  way  to  being 
amply  justified,  when  the  young  lady  in  ques- 
tion took  it  into  her  head  to  forsake  the  path 
of  single  blessedness. 

This  little  proclivity  the  Doctor  admitted 
to  be  a  flaw  in  the  diamond  of  woman's  work, 
to  which  he  had  become  a  devotee. 

"  I  wouldn't  have  a  male  clerk  in  the  place 
if  I  could  help  it !  "    he  exclaimed  one  day 

83 


DR.  BARNARDO 

apropos  of  the  idiotic  blunders  of  a  shorthand 
transcriber. 

"  Well,"  I  replied,  "  my  girl  junior  started 
a  circular  letter  this  morning  about  the 
'  origins  of  the  press.'  " 

"  You  don't  mean  it !  But  then,  she's  an 
exceptionally  careless  little  thing,  isn't  she  ? 
As  a  rule,  women  are  more  painstaking  and 
naturally  more  interested  in  their  work  than 
men."  Then,  with  a  bow,  "  Present  company 
always  excepted  !  " 

All  this  meant  that  the  Doctor  was  very 
sensitive  to  failure  on  the  part  of  those  of 
whom  he  thought  so  much,  and  I  never  saw 
him  so  distressed  as  at  the  disappointing  be- 
haviour of  two  or  three  junior  members  of  the 
staff.  Over  one  at  least  of  these  cases  he 
spent  far  more  time  and  trouble  than  he  could 
afford,  and  apparently  without  result.  In 
this  particular  instance  I — of  all  people  ! — 
was  chosen  as  confidante,  and  my  indignation 
knew  no  bounds  when  I  heard  the  object  of  so 
much  kindness  throw  out  hints  of  a  really 
dreadful  nature  as  to  the  Doctor's  character 
and  conduct. 

For  a  long  time  I  was  under  the  impression 
that  he  was  ignorant  of  these  slanders,  and 
then,  to  my  utter  surprise,  I  found  he  knew  all 
about  them. 

"  But  surely  you  do  not  mean  that  such 
calumnies  should  be  allowed  to  run  their  course, 
unchecked  ?  "  I  enquired  in  amazement. 

"  Certainly  not,  as  a  rule.     Why,  you  re- 

84 


AS  I  KNEW  HIM 

member  that  long  letter  I  got  you  to  draft  to 
the  journal  that  had  been  running  down  the 
League.  But  in  this  case  I  can  make  more 
allowance,  on  medical  grounds,  than  you  can, 
and  I  know  that  the  only  person  to  be  really 
pitied  is  the  unhappy  perpetrator  of  the 
mischief." 

I  ought,  perhaps,  to  say  here,  that  though 
the  Doctor  did  so  often  make  reference  to 
various  workers,  as  such,  he  never,  by  so 
much  as  a  hint  of  anything  amiss,  referred  to 
the  domestic  trials  or  personal  difficulties  of 
anyone  connected  with  the  Homes.  Indeed, 
the  only  instance  I  can  recollect  when  he 
recognised  my  being  behind  the  scenes,  was 
in  the  last-named  case,  when  he  counselled  : 
"  Tell  her  all,  as  you  say  she  already  knows 
so  much."  Even  so,  he  never  referred  to  the 
matter,  to  me,  although  he  was  obliged  to  dis- 
cuss an  entire  change  of  plan,  caused  by  cir- 
cumstances of  which  he  was  not  quite  sure 
that  I  had  been  told. 

Something  I  did  see,  and  much  more  I 
heard,  of  his  phenomenal  patience  with 
troublesome  subjects,  whether  members  of  the 
staff,  inmates  of  the  Homes,  or  the  "  Wards," 
who  were,  from  time  to  time,  thrown  upon  his 
hands.  And  if  he  was  satisfied  that  any  par- 
ticular worker  was  capable,  and  yet  not  in 
the  right  niche,  I  have  known  him  try  repeated 
changes,  until  the  round  peg  has  been  firmly 
established  in  the  round  hole  —  when  his 
triumph  may  be  imagined. 

85 


DR.  BARNARDO 

It  certainly  was  not  easy  to  leave  him,  and 
his  work,  and  his  workers,  when  once  under 
their  spell,  and  nothing,  I  am  sure,  but  down- 
right compulsion  would  have  induced  me 
to  do  it.  On  the  first  occasion  when  my  going 
became  imperative,  I  happened  to  say  to  the 
general  secretary  that  I  should  have  to  leave — 
indeed,  I  was  on  my  way  to  the  Board  Room, 
to  tell  the  Doctor  so — but  was  met  with  a 
smile  of  amusement : 

"  Excuse  me,  but  you'll  see,  you  won't. 
I've  known  many  people  go  up  to  him  with 
that  idea,  and  come  down  more  firmly  es- 
tablished here  than  ever  !  " 

And  his  surprise  was  proportionately  great 
when  he  found  that  circumstances  had,  for 
once,  been  too  much  for  even  the  Chief's 
ingenuity. 


86 


XI 

Long  before  this  I  had  found  out  the  truth 
of  my  first  friend's  prophecy — "  You  will  be 
trusted."  He  did,  absolutely,  as  far  as  my 
special  work  v/as  concerned,  though  he  never 
failed  to  put  me  right  on  matters  of  outside 
opinion,  a  province  in  which  he  seemed  to 
think  I  was  decidedly  inclined  to  go  astray. 

But  before  he  had  quite  satisfied  himself 
as  to  my  trustworthiness,  he  had  his  qualms, 
I  think.  One  day,  when  it  had  been  necessary 
to  take  me  very  much  into  his  confidence,  in 
saying  good-bye  at  the  door  of  the  Board 
Room,  he  remarked  : 

"  Now  be  sure  you  keep  a  still  tongue  in 
your  head  !  " 

An  unusual  inflexion  in  his  voice  suggested 
more  than  met  the  ear,  and  put  me  on  the 
defensive. 

"  Do  you  think  I  don't  keep  a  still  tongue, 
as  a  rule  ?  "  I  enquired. 

"  Well,"  hesitatingly,  "  you  know  you  do 
speak  of  things." 

"  No,"  I  replied,  "  I  really  do  not  know  any 
such  thing.  Do  you  mind  telling  me  just  what 
you  mean  ?  " 

We  came  back  to  the  table  and  he  began  : 

87 


DR.  BARNARDO 

"  Haven't  you  been  telling  people  that  you 
are  going  to  do  that  new  bit  of  work  we've 
been  discussing,  instead  of  the  one  who  ought 
to  do  it  ?  " 

"  Most  certainly  not.  But  what  I  have 
done,  of  set  purpose,  was  to  tell  everyone  I 
could,  that  I  shall  be  taking  it  up,  only 
because  of  the  increase  of  work.  And  I've 
done  this  so  that  it  should  come  as  a  natural 
thing,  and  not  cast  any  sort  of  slur  on  the  new- 
comer." 

He  asked  several  questions  in  his  own 
searching  style,  and  then  came  to  this  con- 
clusion : 

"  I  see  your  point  of  view  and  I  quite 
agree.  But,"  apologetically,  "it  is  so  all- 
important,  in  a  big  work  like  this,  to  avoid 
anything  like  gossip,  that  when  I  heard  you 
had  been  *  talking '  I  quaked.  Now,  my 
friend,"  detecting,  I  suppose,  a  shadow  on  my 
face,  "  don't  go  and  be  offended.  I  don't  pre- 
tend to  be  infallible,  but  I  must  speak  when 
I  think  I  see  things  going  wTong." 

I  had  to  laugh  as  I  exclaimed  : 

"  Why,  the  only  thing  that  troubles  me  is, 
that  you  did  not  speak  before." 

"  AH  right.  I'll  tell  you  another  time — if 
there  is  another  one." 

"  Is  that  a  promise  ?  " 

"  Yes,  it  is,"  he  answered,  shaking  hands, 
with  one  of  his  most  beaming  smiles. 

And  there  is  one  afternoon  that  lives  in  my 
memory  as  an  example  of  his  confidence  in 

88 


AS  I   KNEW  HIM 

my  statements,  even  if  unwelcome.  It 
happened  that  he  was  exasperated  almost 
beyond  bearing,  by  League  troubles — this  was 
in  the  days  when  the  unwieldy  ship,  The 
Young  Helpers'  League,  was  apt  to  give 
alarming  lurches.  On  this  particular  occa- 
sion some  of  the  new  voluntary  officers  had, 
to  use  the  Doctor's  own  expression,  been 
"  kicking  up  their  heels  "  over  some  of  the 
latest  rules  and  regulations.  Two  of  the 
Wardens,  also  newly  appointed,  seized  by  a 
not  unnatural  panic,  had  written  rather  help- 
lessly for  instructions.  Unfortunately,  both 
these  letters  were  couched  in  just  the  sort  of 
terms  to  rouse  the  ire  of  the  Chief. 

"  Write  and  tell  them,"  he  almost  screamed  ; 
and  then  followed  a  really  fierce  manifesto  of 
high-handedness, 

I  accepted  instructions,  as  in  duty  bound, 
but  no  doubt  my  face  betrayed  me,  for  he 
broke  off  suddenly,  to  enquire  in  the  tone  of  a 
long-suffering  martyr  : 

"  And  what  might  be  the  matter  with  you  ?  " 

"  I'm  only  afraid  this  will  seem  like  a  direct 
contradiction  of  the  edict  you  issued  last 
week." 

"  Well,  it  isn't  then.  What  is  it  you  think 
I  said  ?  " 

I  gave  the  gist  of  the  last  set  of  "  Regula- 
tions," and  his  comments  thereon. 

I  really  believe  that  for  one  moment  he 
would  have  liked  to  throw  me  out  of  the 
window.     Instead,  he  treated  me  to  satirical 


DR.  BARNARDO 

comments  on  the  "  coeksureness  "  of  some 
people. 

But  this  was  a  trifle  too  much  for  my  rising 
temper. 

"  If  you  will  kindly  send  for  my  letter- 
book,"  I  remarked  icily,  "  you  will  find  the 
paper,  with  your  signature." 

He  gave  a  quick  glance  of  surprise,  then 
with  a  deprecating  pat  on  the  arm : 

"  Now,  don't  go  and  be  as  cross  as  I  am." 

A  long  pause  followed,  and  then,  in  a  very 
different  tone  : 

"  You  really  are  quite  sure  that  was  what 
I  said  ?  " 

"  Absolutely  sure." 

"  Very  well — so  be  it.  You  ought  to  know 
better  than  I.  Your  whole  attention  is  given 
to  Y.H.L.,  and  it's  only  one  out  of  a  heap  of 
other  interests  to  me." 

I  was  not  surprised  to  be  dismissed  with 
extra  friendliness,  but  before  I  left  the  room 
he  asked  what  sounded  like  an  utterly  irre- 
levant question  : 

"  Do  any  of  your  men  at  home  suffer  from 
suppressed  gout  ?  " 

"  No,"  I  replied,  "  not  as  far  as  I  know." 

"  Then  be  thankful,  for  them  and  for  your- 
self !  " 

^■.  The  clue  to  this  curious  interlude  was  given 
me|by  the  medical  man  who  occupied  the 
office  next  to  mine.  He  had  business  with  me 
the  following  day — business  on  which  the 
final  decision  rested  with  the  Director. 

90 


AS  I   KNEW   HIM 

"  Then  we  shall  have  to  wait,"  was  the 
comment  of  Dr.  No.  II. 

"  Why,  is  Dr.  Barnardo  away  ?  " 

"  Yes  ;  he's  had  to  give  in  at  last,  and  it 
will  certainly  be  days,  if  not  weeks,  before  he 
is  down  again."  Then  he  went  on,  in  a  tone  of 
deepest  sympathy  : 

''  What  beats  me  is,  how  he  fights  against 
the  physical  as  he  does.  All  this  week  and 
last  he  has  been  suffering  from  three  distinct 
ailments,  any  one  of  which  would  have  driven 
me  half  crazy.  And  as  to  his  being  irritable, 
all  I  can  say  is,  I  "  (one  of  the  sweetest- 
tempered  of  men)  ''  shouldn't  be  able  to  con- 
trol myself  one  quarter  as  well  as  he  does." 

That  he  only  did  it  by  his  habitual  reliance 
on  Divine  help,  there  could  be  no  doubt.  On 
the  occasion,  just  described,  for  instance, 
during  the  long  pause  mentioned,  I  saw  his 
lips  move,  and  the  cloud  lift,  before  he  re- 
sumed the  conversation,  in  his  ordinary  tones. 

And  this  recalls  a  memorable  afternoon, 
when,  with  closed  eyes  and  moving  lips,  he 
silently  threw  himself  upon  the  Strong  for 
strength.  It  happened  at  the  time  of  the 
notorious  Gossage  case,  when  it  seemed  as 
though  our  Chief  might  be  called  upon  to  go 
to  "  prison  and  to  judgment." 

I  was  with  him  when  the  telegram  arrived, 
telling  of  the  final  decision.  He  read  it 
through,  and  his  face  became  very  pale. 

"  Bad  news — almost  the  worst  that  could 
be  !  "   he  exclaimed. 

91 


DR.  BARNARDO 

Then  came  the  brief  interval  for  silent 
prayer,  and  as  he  opened  his  eyes,  he  re- 
sponded to  my  anxiety  with  a  smile  I  can 
only  call  "  heavenly." 

"  Don't  be  afraid,  my  friend.  If  I  have  to 
go  to  prison,  it  will  only  be  because  my  God 
allows  it,  and  He  knows  so  well  how  to  make 
all  things  work  together  for  good."  Then,  after 
a  thoughtful  pause,  "  And  yet,  I  hardly  think 
it  can  be  His  will,  just  at  this  time,  when  my 
children  seem  to  so  specially  need  me.  He 
can  make  a  way  out,  and  He  will — I  think." 

His  faith  was  fully  justified,  and  undoubtedly 
much  good  did  ultimately  come  out  of  what, 
at  the  time,  seemed  lamentable  ill. 


92 


XII 

Before  a  successor  was  formally  appointed, 
it  became  evident  that  my  department  had 
become  too  unwieldy  for  a  new-comer  to 
manage  in  its  entirety,  and  I  was  only  too 
willing  to  fall  in  with  the  Doctor's  suggestion 
that  I  should  continue  to  prepare  the  maga- 
zine, doing  the  work  at  home,  with  only  such 
occasional  visits  to  headquarters  as  might  be 
absolutely  needful.  (A  fine  opportunity  for 
the  general  secretary  to  crow  over  me  !) 
This  arrangement  worked  admirably  under 
my  successor  and  her  successors,  and  I  found 
"  needful  "  visits  few  and  far  between.  The 
only  drawback  to  this  was  the  drifting  away 
from  personal  intercourse  with  the  Chief — not 
to  mention  the  staff — and  when  my  mother 
was  at  length  released,  in  the  following 
January,  I  hesitated  to  trouble  Dr.  Barnardo 
with  my  sad  tidings.  I  need  not  have  imagined, 
though,  that  they  would  escape  his  notice, 
and  the  day  before  the  funeral  I  received  from 
him  the  following  expression  of  sympathy  : — 

"  My  dear  Friend, 

"  I  only  heard  yesterday  of  your  great 
loss,  and  while  my  heart  was  full  of  sympathy 
with  you,  I  could  not  help  adding  also,  for 

93 


DR.  BARNARDO 

your  sake.  Thank  God  !  as  I  know  how  great 
the  strain  of  mind  and  body  must  have  been 
to  you  while  watching  your  beloved  mother 
with  no  hope  of  her  ever  becoming  better,  and 
yet  day  by  day  the  ceaseless  and  sorrowful 
burden  of  seeing  one  whom  you  loved  suffer  as 
she  did.  I  assure  you  I  thank  God  on  your 
behalf  and  hers.  I  trust  He  may  console  you 
as  He  alone  can  do,  and  that  after  a  season  of 
quiet  and  rest  you  may  recover  your  physical 
health  and  strength.  Be  assured  of  my  sym- 
pathy and  of  my  continued  interest  in  all  that 
concerns  you  ;  and  do  let  me  hear,  if  only  by  a 
single  line,  how  you  are. 

"  I  am,  my  dear  friend, 
"  Yours  most  sincerely  and  heartily." 

In  acknowledging  this  letter,  I  referred  briefly 
to  some  of  the  details  that  had  made  the  recent 
experience  so  peculiarly  trying,  and  in  a  few 
days  came  a  second  letter,  to  this  effect : — 

"  Again  I  feel  impelled  to  write  and  say, 
'  Be  assured  of  my  sympathy.'  Yours  has 
indeed  been  a  dark  and  devious  path  ;  but 
I  know  by  experience  that  God  always  brings 
a  special  blessing  to  us  out  of  such  trial ;  and 
I  do  not  doubt  that  it  will  be  so  with  you, 
if  only  it  be,  '  A  heart  at  leisure  from  itself — 
To  soothe  and  sympathize.' 

"  I  hope  you  will  not  allow  yourself  to  fancy 
that  you  are  separated  in  thought  and  work 
from 

"  Yours  very  faithfully  in  Christ's  service," 

94 


AS  I   KNEW   HIM 

I  could  only  ask  myself,  "  Is  there  any  other 
Head  of  an  immense  work,  who  would  write 
two  letters  of  condolence  to  a  former  member 
of  his  staff  ?  "  I  can  hardly  think  it.  And  on 
the  side  of  human  interest,  I  believe  he  was 
almost,  if  not  quite,  unique. 

Some  weeks  later,  I  happened  to  meet  one 
of  the  Stepney  workers  whom  I  knew  but 
slightly.  We  were  going  in  the  same  direction, 
and  presently  he  made  some  allusion  to  my 
mourning  garb.  I  told  him  what  had  happened 
and  he  exclaimed  immediately  : 

"  Then  you  know  what  Dr.  Barnardo  is,  in 
time  of  trouble." 

I  remembered  then  that  I  had  heard  of 
lengthy  illness,  involving  other  troubles  in  my 
companion's  home,  and  I  was  quite  ready  to 
echo  his  emphatic  : 

"  There's  nobody  like  him  I  " 

Late  in  the  summer  of  the  same  year  I  met 
Dr.  Barnardo  at  an  important  gathering  in 
the  North,  where  he  was  advertised  to  speak 
both  afternoon  and  evening.  After  the  first 
meeting,  he  beckoned  me  into  a  quiet  corner 
and  sat  down,  looking  absolutely  exhausted. 
Again  he  took  refuge  in  the  tea  stimulant, 
daring  me  to  "  shake  that  wise  head  of  yours  ! " 

And  then  he  unfolded  a  delightful  little  plan 
by  which  I  was  to  be  one  of  his  "  right  hands," 
undertaking  certain  definite  duties,  and  being 
ready  to  give  help  in  other  ways,  as  need 
might  arise. 

"  It's  a  responsible  post,"   he  concluded, 

96 


DR.  BARNARDO 

"  and  though  I  can't  attempt  to  pay  you  at 
the  real  worth  of  the  work,  I  will  be  really 
grateful  if  you  will  accept  " — naming  a  salary 
with  which  I  should  have  been  entirely 
content. 

The  offer  was  a  tempting  one,  and  I  should 
have  accepted  it  on  the  spot  but  that  my  home 
was  now  without  a  woman's  guiding  hand, 
and  that,  moreover,  there  was  a  possibility 
of  our  moving  even  further  from  Stepney,  so 
I  begged  time  for  consideration. 

"  I  don't  mind  how  much  time  you  take — 
in  moderation — provided  you  come  to  me  in 
the  end.  But  please  remember  this,  that 
your  coming  would  distinctly  relieve  me  of 
one  burden.  And,"  speaking  very  seriously, 
"  I'll  tell  you,  as  you  understand  medical 
matters,  I  do  not  like  my  own  symptoms." 

But  I  don't  think  even  he  had  any  idea  how 
near  he  was  to  the  terrible  breakdown,  from 
which,  in  some  ways,  he  never  really  recovered. 
Yet  who  that  heard  him  that  evening  could 
have  imagined  the  shadow  on  his  path  !  His 
energy,  his  delightful  store  of  anecdote,  and 
tlie  way  in  which  he  carried  his  audience  with 
him,  I  never  heard  surpassed.  He  was  not 
perhaps  a  good  speaker,  in  the  ordinary  sense 
of  the  word,  especially  as  his  voice  became 
less  and  less  under  his  own  control,  but  he 
had  the  supreme  gift  of  winning,  and  holding, 
sympathetic  interest.  Personally,  I  never 
heard  him  talk  of  his  boys  and  girls  without 
a  quickened  desire  to  help  in  their  rescue, 

96 


AS  I   KNEW  HIM 

One  day,  after  he  had  addressed  a  large 
gathering  in  the  garden  of  one  of  his  Homes 
for  Incurables,  I  touched  his  elbow  as  he 
passed  out,  saying : 

"  I  want  to  be  a  Deputation  Secretary." 

"  Oh,  you  do  !  "  Then,  to  himself,  fancying 
it  to  be  inaudible,  "  She  wants  to  be  a  Depu- 
tation. No,  no."  To  me,  "  No,  thank  you. 
I  can  get  deputations,  but  literary  helpers 
don't  grow  on  gooseberry  bushes  !  " 

He  had  taken  it  as  a  sort  of  joke,  hitherto, 
but  seeing  I  was  really  in  earnest,  it  was  just 
like  him  to  alter  his  tone  completely  and  to 
say,  in  all  seriousness  : 

"  Now,  just  be  content  to  help  where  you're 
most  needed,  even  if  it  isn't  as  taking  as  '  talk- 
ing to  children  about  children.'  " 

And  off  he  went,  with  a  look  round  at 
the  door,  to  see  if  his  sermonette  had  gone 
home. 

Force  of  circumstances  obliged  me  to  decline 
Dr.  Barnardo's  tempting  offer,  and  although 
he  forbore  to  press  further,  I  am  afraid  my 
"  perversity  "  did  not  raise  me  in  his  estima- 
tion. However,  I  continued  to  do  the  maga- 
zine work  at  home,  and  for  something  like 
six  years  I  was  able  to  carry  it  on  without 
once  needing  to  trouble  the  "  Director,"  as 
he  was  now  called.  Then  there  came  a  time 
when  I  was  personally  freer,  and  this  coincided 
with  a  stage  the  magazine  had  reached  which 
demanded  an  entire  readjustment  of  plan.  ■  -^ 
So  I  found  myself  once  more  in  the  familiar 

G  97 


DR.  BARNARDO 

Board  Room,  and  although  Dr.  Barnardo 
began  by  announcing  : 

"  I'm  all  right,  and  shall  be,  if  I  can  only 
keep  to  doing  the  work  of  one  man  instead  of 
three,"  I  found  him  almost  as  full  of  plans 
and  suggestions  and  engagements  as  ever. 
He  was  still  anxious,  I  quickly  discovered, 
that  I  should  work  at  headquarters,  and 
take  over  a  good  many  odds  and  ends  of  work, 
chiefly  literary,  in  addition  to  the  bulk  of  sub- 
editing. It  took  only  a  few  minutes  to  arrange 
details  and  I  left,  actually  engaged,  barring 
the  one  stipulation,  that  I  should  be  able  to 
find  a  bedroom  near  by,  for  two  nights  in  the 
week.  In  a  neighbourhood  like  Stepney  this 
is  hardly  the  trifle  it  sounds,  and  it  meant  a 
good  bit  of  hunting  round  before  I  unearthed 
a  respectable  landlady,  whose  ideas  of  comfort 
and  cleanliness  approximated  to  my  own. 

But  in  announcing  to  the  Director  my  suc- 
cess, I  inadvertently  maligned  a  class  for 
which  he  had  great  respect,  and  in  the  course 
of  one  of  his  long  letters,  I  received  this 
delicate  rap  on  the  knuckles  : 

"  I  am  glad  you  have  got  lodgings,  although 
perhaps  not  of  the  nicest.  Our  poor  East 
End  is  not  very  rich  in  good  rooms,  but  I 
lived  during  five  years  of  my  student  life  in 
little  back  streets.  Of  course,  young  men  can 
rough  it  and  don't  need  the  same  degree  of 
refinement  that  a  lady  does,  but  I  found, 
without  exception,  my  several  landladies 
most  kind  and  sympathetic,   and   when,   as 

98 


AS   I   KNEW   HIM 

happened  twice,  I  was  taken  ill  in  my  lodgings, 
once  with  small-pox,  another  time  with 
diphtheria  ...  I  received  such  constant  care 
and  attention  from  my  landladies  that  I  could 
not  have  been  better  looked  after  in  my  own 
home.  As  to  cleanliness,  the  fault  lies  largely 
in  the  atmosphere.  We  know  in  the  Homes 
how  difficult  it  is  to  keep  our  appointments 
clean,  and  how  the  smuts  and  blacks  come 
down  and  disfigure  everything ;  but  apart 
from  that,  I  am  sure  the  landladies  are,  as  a 
rule,  as  keen  on  keeping  their  little  homes 
sweet  and  nice  as  they  could  be  at  the  West 
End  of  London." 

And  certainly  my  own  experience  was  on 
the  same  lines,  both  my  landladies  proving 
veritable  treasures — a  fact  duly  notified  to 
Dr.  Barnardo,  to  his  great  satisfaction. 


99 


XIll 

My  second  induction  to  work  at  Stepney  was 
carried  through  by  the  Director  himself. 

"  Don't  come  till  afternoon,"  were  his 
significant  instructions,  "  and  come  straight 
to  the  Board  Room  at  2.0  sharp." 

This,  I  discovered  to  be,  in  order  that,  with 
a  flourish  of  trumpets,  he  might  introduce  me 
to  my  new  quarters.  Certainly,  the  Editorial 
Room  was  worth  making  a  fuss  over.  Large, 
lofty,  and  well-lighted,  the  walls  adorned  with 
cupboards  and  shelves,  ample  for  the  accommo- 
dation of  the  wherewithal  for  editing  three 
magazines,  a  proper  writing-table — which  I 
had  sadly  missed  in  the  old  days — and  a  type- 
writer after  my  own  heart ! 

I  might  indeed  feel  I  had  reached  Elysium, 
whilst  the  hearty  greetings  of  Chief  and  staff 
made  the  return  a  very  happy  experience. 
And  the  Director  was  so  pleased  with  my 
pleasure,  and  so  anxious  that  I  should  be 
thoroughly  comfortable,  that  he  made  a  num- 
ber of  excuses  the  first  few  days  to  have  a 
look  round  at  the  new  premises.  His  private 
room  adjoined  the  Editorial  Room,  and  the 
Board  Room  was  only  just  across  the  corridor, 
so  that  it  was  easier  for  him  to  get  at  me,  in 

100 


DR.  BARNAlftPQi         '     !    ;i 

odd  minutes,  than  when  I  was  in  another 
building  and  on  a  different  floor. 

I  appreciated  the  difference  greatly,  when 
my  second  office  had  to  be  treated  for  some 
defect  in  the  heating  arrangements,  and  I  was 
relegated  to  an  immense  room  downstairs  for 
two  or  three  weeks.  It  was  so  very  large — 
originally  intended  for  a  library,  I  believe — 
that  the  coke  stove  only  did  service  for  a  de- 
cidedly limited  area,  and  we  all  learnt  by 
personal  experience  the  meaning  of  numbed 
fingers  and  chattering  teeth. 

On  a  keen  day  in  early  winter,  when  I  was 
still  in  this  uncomfortable  barn,  I  had  been 
having  an  unusually  long  string  of  instructions 
given  me  by  the  Director,  when  his  secretary 
felt  obliged  to  warn  him  that  a  most  important 
appointment  would  be  due  in  five  minutes. 

*'  Oh  dear,  and  I  haven't  half  finished  with 
you  !  Now  do  be  a  saint  and  wait  till  the  good 
man's  gone."  "  Yes,"  answering  his  secre- 
tary's suggestion  of  other  interviews  to  follow, 
"  I  know  there  are  other  things.  But,"  to 
me,  "  you'll  wait  half  an  hour  for  me,  won't 
you  ?  " 

I  could  not  refuse,  but  when  I  got  down- 
stairs I  found  the  clerks,  thinking  I  had  left, 
had  also  taken  their  departure,  having  been 
half  suffocated  with  the  fumes  of  that  wretched 
stove. 

There  was  nothing  for  it  but  to  don  my 
outdoor  things  and  wait.  At  the  end  of  each 
half -hour  I  despatched  a  messenger  up  to  the 

101 


DR.  BARNARDO 

Board  Room,  who  returned  with  the  monoto- 
nous message,  "  The  Director  still  engaged." 

But  when  one  half-hour  had  stretched  to 
five,  I  sent  up  a  personal  note  to  the  Director, 
headed  "  The  Ice  Well,"  asking  whether  he 
wished  me  to  wait  till  I  was  actually  frozen. 

Down  came  an  immediate  reply,  headed 
"  The  Stoke  Hole." 

"  Of  course  not,  and  there's  no  knowing 
when  you'll  get  a  chance  of  thawing  up  here. 
GO!" 

In  the  interval  between  my  sojournings  at 
Stepney,  many  changes  had  taken  place  in 
the  structural  arrangements  of  the  Boys' 
Home,  the  most  important  being  the  adapta- 
tion of  two  or  three  large  schoolrooms  into  a 
church,  under  the  care  of  a  permanent  chap- 
lain. This  church  was  almost  opposite  the 
Editorial  Room,  and  amongst  its  many  activi- 
ties was  a  monthly  staff  prayer-meeting. 
Attendance  at  this  was  of  course  purely 
voluntary,  and  I  thought  myself  unfortunate 
in  that  my  work  happened  so  frequently  to 
be  specially  pressing  on  that  particular  day. 
For  here,  indeed,  our  Chief  was  at  his  very 
best.  Not  only  was  he  himself,  full  of  spiritual 
life  and  vigour,  but  without  apparent  effort 
he  had  the  happy  knack  of  bringing  out  the 
best  in  all  who  took  part.  His  reading  of 
Scripture  I  never  heard  excelled.  Often,  as 
he  read,  the  words  seemed  to  be  clothed  with 
fresh  meaning,  and  curiously  enough,  though 
he  had  so  greatly  lost  control  over  his  voice, 

102 


AS  I  KNEW  HIM 

in  an  ordinary  way,  when  it  came  to  the  Book 
he  so  dearly  loved,  he  seemed  to  have  retained 
full  power  of  expression,  giving  the  right 
inflexion,  without  difficulty  or  hesitation.  At 
least  this  was  so  at  the  time  of  my  return — 
later  on  I  noticed  that  when  tired  or  suffering, 
he  unconsciously  dropped  his  voice  occasion- 
ally, not  always  in  the  right  place. 

Two  of  the  themes  by  which  I  remember  him 
best  were  the  illimitable  power  of  prayer,  and 
the  privilege  of  active  service.  On  one  occa- 
sion I  recollect  he  spoke  of  the  many-sided 
aspects  of  prayer ;  as  a  bringing  of  our  will 
into  harmony  with  God's  ;  as  a  reminder  of 
our  dependence  on  Him  ;  as  an  act  of  obedi- 
ence ;  and  as  an  opportunity  for  direct 
thanksgiving. 

"  All  true,  my  friends  !  "  he  exclaimed, 
"  all  true,  and  truer  perhaps  than  we  can 
understand.  But,"  and  here  his  face  lighted 
up  with  the  joy  of  knowledge,  "  oh,  so  much 
more  than  this.  Have  we  not,  all  of  us  here, 
known  the  joy  of  that  voiceless  answer,  that 
is  so  unspeakably  sweet  to  the  children  of  His 
love  ?  Explain  it  to  Reason  ?  Ah,  that  I 
can't.  But  do  you  know,  the  longer  I  live, 
the  more  I  find  that  is  not  explainable  to 
reason — indeed,  I  sometimes  wonder  whether 
there  is  anything  worth  the  knowing,  that 
can  be  made  really  clear  to  our  limited  under- 
standing. All  the  same,  even  if  there  were  no 
direct  revelation  on  the  subject,  I  should 
knoiv,  from  my  own  experience,  that  in  some 

103 


DR.  BARNARDO 

way,  utterly  beyond  my  feeble  comprehension, 
my  prayer  does  reach  the  ear  and  touch  the 
heart  of  my  Heavenly  Father." 

And  as  he  went  on  talking  I  believe  every 
one  of  us  felt  lifted  above  the  commonplace 
of  things  temporal  to  the  shrine  of  close 
communion  with  things  eternal.  Certainly,^ 
as  we  dispersed,  we  said  to  one  another, 
"  What  a  privilege  to  work  and  to  pray  !  " 

Another  time,  it  happened  that  there  had 
been  a  great  many  difficulties  amongst  the 
children  in  several  of  the  Homes.  In  the 
midst  of  a  talk  on  the  familiar  exhortation, 
"Feed  My  lambs,"  the  Director  paused  and 
then  said,  with  a  note  of  half-apology  in  his 
voice  : 

"  Ah,  it's  all  very  well  for  me,  you  may  be 
saying,  considering  I  have  only  the  general 
oversight  and  the  income  to  care  for.  But 
you  do  not  need  to  tell  me,  you  Cottage 
mothers,  that  it  is  you  who  are  doing  the 
actual  work — you  who  have  to  put  up  with 
cross  words  and  wilful  ways,  and  bad  tempers 
and  disobedience,  and  apparent  lack  of  success 
after  all  your  efforts.  I  know  ;  I  understand  ; 
I  could  never  half  express  what  I  think  of  all 
your  work  and  patience,  and  yours  will  be  the 
happy  reward  in  the  day  of  '  Inasmuch.'  " 

Simple,  indeed,  it  looks  in  written  words, 
but  the  large  heart  behind  the  words  gave 
them  such  glow  and  warmth,  that  I  was  not 
at  all  surprised  to  see  more  than  a  few  pocket- 
handkerchiefs  come  into  requisition. 

104 


AS   I   KNEW   HIM 

The  last  time  I  heard  him  take  a  prayer- 
meeting  (not  his  last,  but  mine)  he  was  full  of 
joyful  thanksgiving.  It  was  just  at  the  end 
of  a  financial  year,  and  he  was  able  to  report 
an  unprecedented  income.  "  Oh,  magnify  the 
Lord  with  me,"  was  the  burden  of  his  song. 

"  Almost  all  I  want !  "  he  exclaimed,  when 
nearing  the  end  of  the  story.  "  I  only  need 
another  £5000  "  (or  some  such  sum)  "  and  I 
should  be  perfectly  satisfied." 

Fancy  our  dear  Director  "  satisfied,"  with 
such  wide  ground  still  untouched.  An  in- 
voluntary smile  showed  itself  on  all  faces. 

"  Why,  what  is  it  ?  What  have  I  said  that's 
funny  ?    I  only  want " 

But  the  idea,  thus  repeated,  was  too  droll, 
and  the  smile  grew  into  a  ripple  of  laughter. 
Then,  seeing  that  the  Chief  was  looking  really 
mystified,  one  of  his  oldest  and  most  trusted 
helpers  stepped  to  his  side,  and  speaking  as 
the  mouthpiece  of  all,  exclaimed  : 

"  We  love  you,  and  we  rejoice  with  you, 
but  we  can't,  by  any  stretch  of  imagination, 
picture  you  as  '  satisfied  '  till  there  is  ample 
provision  for  every  single  child  of  need." 

The  meeting  that  followed  is  a  delightful 
memory,  and  happily  none  of  us  suspected 
how  soon  our  Head  would  be  laid  aside  again 
by  one  of  the  serious  ''  attacks  "  which,  during 
the  last  few  years  of  his  life,  seemed  to  be 
always  lying  in  wait  for  him. 


106 


XIV 

Three  years  of  happy  work  in  the  Editorial 
Room,  and  then  came,  for  me,  a  fresh  up- 
rooting. My  father,  who  had  also  become 
liable  to  "  attacks,"  was  taken  suddenly  and 
alarmingly  worse,  and  the  fresh  doctor  called 
in,  told  us,  unhesitatingly,  to  prepare  for  the 
worst.  He  also  feared  a  very  terrible  phase 
of  suffering,  and  warned  me  that  I  ought  not 
to  be  out  of  the  house  for  even  a  few  hours. 
It  was  again  an  unspeakable  comfort  to  have 
to  deal  with  a  Chief  whose  medical  knowledge 
enabled  him  to  grasp  the  situation  at  a  glance. 
His  reply  came  almost  by  return  of  post : 

''  I  received,  with  very  great  sympathy, 
your  letter  on  the  subject  of  your  father's 
ill-health.  I  am  indeed  sorry  for  him  and  you, 
and  trust  that  in  spite  of  the  serious  compli- 
cations of  which  you  write,  you  may  yet  be 
able  to  send  me  a  better  report  of  him.  In 
the  meanwhile  you  must  not  leave  him,  and 
I  shall  be  quite  satisfied  if  you  will  do  what 
you  have  to  do  for  us,  at  home." 

Again  came  a  period  of  watching,  pro- 
longed beyond  all  expectation,  and  again  the 
kindest  sympathy  and  readiest  help  from  the 

106 


DR.  BARNARDO 

Director  and  his  staff.  The  end  came  when 
Dr.  Barnardo  was  in  the  thick  of  one  of  his 
heaviest  spells  of  work,  at  a  Church  Confer- 
ence, when  every  minute  was  precious,  and 
I  timed  my  letter,  telling  of  our  loss,  to  reach 
him  on  his  return  home.  But  again,  as  before, 
he  heard  of  it  from  another  source,  and  sum- 
moning his  private  secretary  he  dictated  the 
following  wire,  which  was  handed  to  me  just 
as  we  returned  from  the  funeral : 

"Have  just  heard  of  your  great  loss. 
Accept  sincere  sympathy.    God  comfort  you. 

"  Barnardo." 

And  two  days  later  came  this  further  ex- 
pression of  sympathy  : 

"I  heard  in  Bristol  yesterday  of  your 
great  loss  and  find  your  letter  awaiting  me 
here  on  my  return.  I  sent  you  a  very  hasty 
telegram  from  Bristol,  but  must  add  a  few 
personal  words  of  sympathy.  It  is  indeed  a 
blessed  thing  for  us  when  we  can  contemplate 
the  death  of  those  we  love  as  a  fresh  proof  of 
God's  goodness  to  them,  and  you  .  .  .  may 
well  be  thankful  that  the  anxious,  painful, 
and  depressing  experience  through  which  he 
was  called  to  pass  at  the  close  of  his  life  is  at 
an  end.  .  .  .  And  yet  I  suppose  there  are  no 
relationships  in  life  the  loss  of  which  is  so 
irretrievable  as  those  of  our  parents.  Happy 
are  we  when  they  continue  with  us  right  up  to 
middle   life   and    we   ourselves   are   able   to 

107 


DR.  BARNARDO 

minister  to  the  comfort  and  peace  of  their 
decUning  years.  But  when  the  summons 
comes,  although  we  may  have  expected  it, 
and  in  some  ways,  even  wished  for  it,  the 
blank  left  in  our  lives  is  very  great  and  can 
be  filled  by  no  one  else.  How  keenly  do  I 
recollect,  in  this  connection,  the  loss  of  my 
own  dear  mother,  who  fell  on  sleep  just  a  year 
and  a  half  ago,  at  the  ripe  old  age  of  eighty- 
three." 

Then  came  the  question  of  our  meeting. 
Such  a  list  of  engagements  !  And  as  the  only 
possibility  of  a  speedy  interview,  he  actually 
suggested  coming  up  half  an  hour  earlier  than 
usual,  for  the  purpose  of  considering  my  private 
affairs  !  And  the  wind-up  of  his  letter  ran  thus  : 

"  Now  I  can  only  afresh  offer  you  the  assur- 
ance of  my  sincere  personal  sympathy  and 
earnest  desire  for  you  that  you  may  be  kept 
and  guided  amid  the  changes  which  must  take 
place  in  your  life,  owing  to  your  father's 
death,  and  in  the  difficulties  with  which  you 
may  have  to  contend." 

When  we  met,  he  was,  of  course,  kindness 
itself,  and  it  was  agreed  between  us  that  for 
a  time,  at  any  rate,  no  radical  alterations  need 
be  made  ;  and  I  am  sure  it  gave  him  genuine 
pleasure  when  I  let  him  see  that  I  could  never 
feel  homeless,  whatever  happened,  so  long  as 
there  remained  the  Editorial  Room  and  the 
Board  Room  ! 

108 


AS  I   KNEW   HIM 

Owing  to  the  painful  experiences  of  the 
summer  I  had  not  been  able  to  go  away  for 
a  holiday,  and  work  being  now  in  full  swing 
it  was  arranged  that  I  should  take  what  odds 
and  ends  of  time  I  could,  between  the  issues  of 
the  magazines.  I  did  this  twice,  and  on  the 
second  occasion,  just  as  I  was  returning,  a 
long-suffering  heart  declined  to  be  further 
ignored.  I  consulted  a  doctor,  who,  it  turned 
out,  had  been  a  practical  sympathizer  with  the 
work  of  the  Homes  for  several  years,  and  of 
whose  reputation  Dr.  Barnardo  happened  to 
know.  Acting  on  his  advice,  I  laid  the  matter 
— in  technical  terms — before  the  Director, 
who  lost  no  time  in  replying  thus  : 

"  Your  letter  of  the  17th  reached  me  yester- 
day morning  and  had  it  been  possible  I  would 
have  replied  by  return,  but  the  whole  day  was 
so  full  that  I  could  not  get  a  moment's  time 
in  which  to  write  to  you.  .  .  .  One  thing  is 
clear — your  health  is  your  most  precious 
asset.  You  must  give  absolute  obedience  to 
the  orders  of  your  medical  man,  and  I  know 
sufficiently  well  what  Mr.  Shann's  reputation 
is,  to  be  assured  that,  if  he  feels  it  is  necessary 
you  should  take  prolonged  rest,  the  matter 
must  be  serious  enough  to  demand  your 
immediate  and  entire  acquiescence  with  his 
directions.  ...  I  will  try  to-day  to  get  a 
few  words  with  Smith  and  see  if  he  cannot 
relieve  you  of  the  magazines  and  of  writing 
and  of  everything  else  for  a  while.  *  .  .  As  to 

109 


DR.  BARNARDO 

your  giving  up  your  salary,  that  is  all  fudge 
and  nonsense.  When  anybody  in  our  Mission 
breaks  down  through  ill-health,  we  are  not 
in  the  habit  of  acting  shabbily  with  them,  and 
readily  grant  the  necessary  leave  of  absence. 
...  I  quite  feel  with  Mr.  Shann  that  you 
ought  to  have  a  rest  of  such  sort  that  no 
shadow  of  responsibility  should  come  across 
your  nervous  system,  to  stimulate  or  burden 
it  in  any  way,  and  that  you  ought  to  be  able 
to  turn  with  a  fresh  mind,  simply  to  a  dawdling 
life  for  a  while,  in  the  hope  that  it  may  give  you 
back  the  precious  gift  of  health.  So  now  you 
have  nothing  more  to  do  but  to  try  and  get 
well.  Send  back  at  Smith's  head  every  letter 
he  sends  you  and  every  paper  and  proof  " 
(a  little  package,  weighing  2  lbs.,  had  come 
down  by  the  previous  post !),  "  and  I  will  give 
orders  that  nothing  shall  go  to  you  till  your 
medical  attendant  says  my  patient  is  a 
patient  no  longer. 

"  Wishing  you  a  full  return  of  health,  happi- 
ness, quietness  of  mind,  and  bright  alertness 
of  outlook, 

"  Believe  me  to  be, 

"  Most  truly  and  sincerely  yours." 

Long-suffering  Mr.  Smith  followed  out  the 
instructions  of  his  Chief,  in  spirit  as  well  as  in 
letter,  and  it  was  certainly  not  from  him  that 
I  knew  what  a  burden  of  anxiety  and  worry 
he  had  to  bear  on  my  behalf — not  to  speak 
of  the  downright  hard  work,  which  came,  of 

110 


AS   I   KNEW   HIM 

course,  at  the  heaviest  time  of  the  Stepney 
year.  Had  I  had  any  idea  how  matters  really 
stood,  I  fancy  that  not  even  the  Director  could 
have  persuaded  me  to  the  "  dawdling  "  life. 
As  it  was,  I  found  laziness — for  a  time — less  un- 
endurable than  I  could  have  thought  possible, 
and  I  soon  began  to  feel  the  benefit  of  taking 
good  advice. 

All  the  same,  to  be  ill  and  alone  in  lodgings 
at  Christmas  time,  is  an  experience  that  leaves 
a  good  deal  to  be  desired,  and  I  shall  never 
forget  the  pleasure  with  which  I  received  this 
reminder  from  the  Chief : 

"  My  dear  Friend, 

"  I  am  wondering  how  you  are.  How 
have  you  progressed,  and  are  you  taking  the 
real  rest  which  your  condition  demands  ? 
I  hope  so,  and  I  hope  you  will  have  a  good  re- 
port to  send  me  when  you  write.  Meanwhile 
I  cannot  let  the  occasion  of  Christmas  pass  by 
without  writing  you  a  few  lines,  if  only  to 
assure  you  of  my  appreciation  of  your  .  .  . 
service,  and  of  my  sincere  hope  that  you  may 
soon  be  raised  up  to  continue  that  work  with 
restored  powers. 

"  Will  you  accept,  as  a  little  token  of  re- 
membrance, that  which  I  send  you  under 
another  cover  ?  I  hope  it  may  reach  you 
safely  and  may  sometimes  remind  you  of  all 
the  varied  interests  that  centre  round  Stepney 
Causeway." 

*'  That  "  was  a  photo  of  himself — taken  for 
111 


DR.  BARNARDO 

his  friends,  and  for  private  circulation  only — 
which,  in  its  silver  frame,  has  been  my  com- 
panion in  all  subsequent  wanderings.  It 
represents  him  in  his  holiday  bowler  hat, 
which  partly  accounts  for  the  fact  that 
strangers  almost  invariably  exclaim,  "  That 
Dr.  Barnardo  !  Why,  I  had  no  idea  he  was 
such  a  young  man  !  "  To  me,  it  is  the  Director 
himself,  just  ready  with  an  amused  retort, 
and  I  think  he  knew  that  he  could  not  have 
chosen  any  present  I  should  have  valued  quite 
so  much,  though  I  little  thought,  at  the  time 
of  receiving  it,  that  only  once  more  should  I 
look  upon  the  face  of  its  original. 


112 


XV 

For  a  time  I  continued  to  make  rapid  pro- 
gress and  was  contemplating  a  return  to  work, 
when  fresh  trouble,  involving  heavy  physical 
strain,  brought  about  a  renewal,  in  aggravated 
form,  of  the  heart  trouble,  and  specialist 
opinion  was  so  strongly  in  favour  of  entire 
and  lengthened  cessation  from  activity,  that 
there  seemed  nothing  for  it  but  permanently 
to  sever  my  connection  with  the  Homes. 

In  the  meanwhile,  editorial  matters  had  not 
been  going  too  smoothly — in  particular,  cer- 
tain clerical  carelessness  in  a  department 
touching  mine,  was  put  down  to  my  credit, 
and  when  I  heard  that  the  head  was  seeing 
the  Director — now  in  the  grip  of  one  of  his 
attacks — with  a  view  to  "  discussing  matters 
thoroughly,"  I  was  not  unprepared  for  the 
following  letter : 

"  I  am  glad  to  send  you  a  little  personal 
note  of  acknowledgment  and  thanks  for  your 
kind  letter  which  reached  me  last  week.  I  am 
happily  going  on  fairly  well,  and  although  the 
condition  of  the  heart  is  not  perhaps  better, 
and  won't  be  until  I  get  special  treatment, 
yet  the  enforced  rest  and   quiet  are   doing 

H  113 


DR.  BARNARDO 

^ood  to  the  general  system.  I  hope  you  too 
are  making  satisfactory  progress.  I  often 
think  of  you,  especially  now  that  I  seem  to  be 
in  like  case,  for  you  know  the  old  adage, 
'  Companions  in  distress  make  misery  the 
less.'  I  am  not  sure  that  that  is  so.  but  I  am 
sure  that  it  creates  a  very  real  sympathy,  one 
with  the  other. 

"  With  regard  to  the  Magazine  and  your 
work  on  it.  I  think,  dear  friend,  I  must  ask 
you  to  at  once  cease  attempting  to  do  any 
work  upon  it  till  you  are  able  to  return  in  full 
swing  to  the  office.  ...  I  am  sure  you  will 
feel  this  course  necessary  not  only  for  your 
own  sake,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  Magazine. 
I  do  not  think  you  will  regard  the  last  issue 
as  a  very  satisfactory  production.  But  of 
course  you  laboured  under  the  greatest  diffi- 
culties, and  my  wonder  is  that  you  were  able 
to  do  what  you  did.  But  now  please  give 
it  up  right  away.  .  .  .  Wait  until  your  own 
strength  is  thoroughly  renewed  and  you  feel 
able  to  come  back  to  us.  Then  everything 
will  gravitate  around  you  once  more." 

I  imagine  that  only  those  who  knew  his 
high  standard  of  excellence,  and  how  he 
abhorred  sending  out  work  that  came  short 
of  it,  could  appreciate  the  immense  self- 
restraint  of  such  a  letter,  addressed  to,  as  he 
believed,  the  author  of  the  mischief.  Had 
he  been  well,  and  I  in  my  usual  health, 
it  would  have  been  quite  easy  to  explain  the 

114 


AS   I   KNEW  HIM 

misrepresentation — made,  doubtless,  in  all 
good  faith,  and  due  only  to  lack  of  comprehen- 
sion. As  it  was,  I  could  but  accept  his  dictum 
and  ask  to  be  released,  altogether  and  im- 
mediately. Indeed,  by  the  same  post  that 
brought  the  Director's  letter,  I  heard  incident- 
ally of  a  promising  successor.  I  therefore 
felt  that  the  greatest  hindrance  to  leaving 
had  been  removed,  and  it  was  satisfactory  to 
find,  as  time  went  on,  that  the  promise 
was  fully  realized,  and  the  work  admirably 
maintained. 

So,  I  wrote  as  careful  and  guarded  a  letter 
as  I  could  compass,  flattering  myself  that  there 
was  nothing  in  it  to  add  even  the  proverbial 
straw  to  the  over-heavy  burden.  But  I  was 
not  allowing  for  the  Director's  abnormal 
quickness  of  perception,  and  he  promptly 
dictated  this  volume,  surely  without  parallel 
from  a  man  in  his  state  of  physical  prostra- 
tion.   It  ran  thus  : 

''  Aren't  women  very  funny  to  deal  with  ? 
/  don't  understand  them.  In  the  folly  of  my 
conceited  boyhood  when  I  was  about  twenty 
years  of  age,  I  thought  I  knew  all  about  them, 
but  as  I  grow  older  I  find  I  know  less  than 
nothing.  Truly  they  are  '  wonderful  human 
bein's,'  as  I  think  the  late  Artemus  Ward  used 
to  say. 

"  What  have  I  done  ?  First,  I  have  given 
you  three  months',  or  four,  I  forget  which, 
complete  holiday,  or  rather  leave  of  absence, 

116 


DR.  BARNARDO 

owing  to  your  state  of  health,  that  you  might 
recoup  and  recover  yourself.  In  answer  to  your 
own  request  to  resign  I  pooh-poohed  the  mat- 
ter, and  said,  '  No  ;  give  yourself  a  chance  ; 
we  will  still  keep  you  on  the  staff,  and  then 
when  the  time  comes,  if  you  find  you  cannot 
go  on,  you  will  tell  me  so  plainly.'  So  far  so 
good.  I  am  at  least  only  a  '  mere  man,'  and 
being  such  a  stupid,  common-sense  kind  of 
creature,  destitute  of  that  finer  and  more 
subtle  thought  that  distinguishes  blessed 
womanhood,  I  have,  or  had,  no  arriere  pensce  ; 
I  spoke  out  what  I  thought,  and  having  done 
so  believed  that  was  the  end  of  the  matter. 
Accordingly,  when  I  heard  that  all  the  letters 
were  being  sent  down  to  you  and  that  you 
were  being  bothered  in  your  illness  by  demands 
for  copy,  and  when  I  saw  how  difierent  the 
Magazine  looked  when  it  was  done  away  from 
your  careful  eye,  I  said  to  myself,  '  This  won't 
do  ;  let  her  have  her  complete  rest  and  change, 
let  no  more  letters  or  papers  go  to  her,  let  the 
dear  soul,  while  she  is  having  her  rest,  have 
it,  and  I  will  write  and  tell  her  so  ' — which 
I  did. 

"  Now,  what  follows  ?  One  of  those  curious, 
enigmatical  letters  which  '  no  fellow  can  under- 
stand.' Of  course,  very  kind  and  very  nice, 
but  meaning  so  much  more  than  appears  on 
the  surface,  and  I  am  not  clever  enough  to 
read  between  the  lines,  only  I  cannot  help, 
as  I  put  the  letter  to  my  deaf  ear,  catching 
the  note  which  vibrates  of  a  hurt  feeling." 

116 


AS   I   KNEW   HIM 

(I  have  just  looked  through  the  rough  note 
I  made  of  my  own  letter,  and  cannot  imagine 
how  in  the  world  he  heard  it !) 

"  If  you  turn  back  to  my  letter,  you  will 
see  that  my  proposal  was  strictly  of  a  tempo- 
rary character,  only  while  you  were  away,  until 
you  could  come  back  to  us.  So  now  please 
forgive  me.  .  .  .  Just  use  your  common  sense, 
if  you  have  any.  I  don't  believe  ladies  ever  do 
have  common  sense  ;  they  have  so  many  other 
senses  that  we  don't  possess  that  they  think 
common  sense  is  not  worth  having.  But  I 
say,  try  and  exercise  any  you  do  possess  and 
write  me  a  nice  letter.  Perhaps  you  don't 
know  what  would  be  my  standard  for  a  nice 
letter  :  well,  I  will  give  you  just  a  few  hints. 
It  might  begin  :  '  Dear  Chief,'  and  then  go 
on,  '  I  quite  agree  with  you  that  while  I  am 
away  it  is  better  that  I  should  not  meddle 
with  the  papers  from  the  office  and  the 
printers  and  the  bother  of  making  up  and  all 
that.  I  cheerfully  surrender  to  your  hands 
my  work  until  I  am  able  to  come  back,  and 
then  I  will  take  it  up  with  delight  and  show 
you  that  I  am  going  to  make  up  for  lost  time. 
...  I  know  right  well  all  my  work  on  the 
Magazine  was  the  spice  of  my  life  and  kept 
me  going.  I  would  get  into  the  dumps  hope- 
lessly but  for  it,  and  I  am  looking  forward 
keenly  to  resuming  it  and  other  literary  tasks 
which  you  may  wish  to  place  upon  my 
shoulders.  Wild  horses  would  not  draw  me 
away  from  the  Y.H.L. ! ' 

117 


DR.  BARNARDO 

"  Now  that  is  what  I  call  a  nice  letter, 
instead  of — pray  forgive  me — all  the  rubbish 
about  a  '  homeless  waif ' "  (a  favourite  de- 
scription of  himself  when  house-hunting !). 
"  Fancy  anyone  being  a  homeless  waif  who 
comes  down  to  Stepney  Causeway  and  takes 
her  tea  every  afternoon !  Fie  upon  you. 
Now  write  me  a  nice  letter  at  once," 

My  reply  repudiated  the  idea  of  being 
"  hurt  "  by  any  suggestion  of  his,  and  I  went 
out  of  the  work,  without  formal  farewell,  on 
the  understanding  that  I  offered  myself  for 
re-engagement  when  health  allowed. 


118 


XVI 

A  FEW  weeks  later  saw  Dr.  Barnardo  again  at 
Nauheim,  where  he  had  previously  derived 
great  benefit  from  special  treatment.  Here 
he  heard  that  I,  too,  had  been  ordered  abroad, 
and  he  showed  the  liveliest  satisfaction  when 
told  that  I  had  decided  to  try  a  course  in 
Germany.  Naturally,  my  choice  followed  that 
of  my  Chief,  and  before  I  came  I  was  in- 
structed to  "Go  under  Dr.  S."  (one  of  the 
two  "  big  guns  "  of  the  place).  "  I  am  under 
Dr.  G.,"  he  went  on,  "  so  we  can  compare 
notes  and  see  if  they  differ." 

Of  course  I  carried  out  his  wishes,  but  the 
comparing  did  not  take  place  till  we  met  in 
England,  for  by  what  seemed  almost  a  fatality, 
we  never  met  abroad,  in  spite  of  a  lively  game 
of  Box  and  Cox.  But  through  his  secretary 
he  had  daily  reports  of  my  progress. 

"  Is  she  feeling  very  low  ?  "  he  enquired, 
when  I  had  been  under  treatment  about  a 
week. 

"  I  fancy  she  is,"  was  the  reply. 

"  Tell  her  she  mustn't  mind  that.  I  was 
frightfully  depressed  the  first  time,  and  so 
are  most  people.  She'll  probably  be  worse 
before  she's  better,  but  it'll  only  be  a  matter 

119 


DR.  BARNARDO 

of  three  or  four  weeks,  and  she  must  just  be 
brave  and  patient." 

If  it  had  not  been  for  this  reassurance, 
frequently  repeated,  I  hardly  think  my  cour- 
age would  have  held  out,  especially  when  I 
found  that  Dr.  S.  was  beginning  to  look  upon 
me  as  one  of  his  few  failures. 

About  this  time  Dr.  Barnardo  went  away 
for  a  week,  only  returning — with  an  atrocious 
cold — for  a  few  final  baths,  and  was  just  in 
time  to  be  gratified  with  the  report  of  "  a 
turn  for  the  better,"  on  my  part.  He,  too, 
went  home  better,  though  the  chill  he  had 
taken  on  his  visit  to  Frankfort,  and  his 
imprudence  in  conducting  a  meeting  at 
Nauheim — almost  in  defiance  of  medical 
authority — were  anything  but  helpful  factors. 

I  returned  some  weeks  later,  "  a  cure — ^for 
the  time,"  and  in  accordance  with  previous 
arrangements,  I  let  the  Director  know  when  I 
was  returning  to  London  and  should  be  ready 
for  his  promised  advice.    He  replied  : 

"  I  was  very  pleased  to  hear  of  and  from 
you,  but  wish  you  had  given  me  more  par- 
ticulars." (Reserved,  out  of  pity !)  ''  I 
suppose  it  must  now  be  five  or  six  weeks  since 
you  left  Nauheim,  and  if  the  cure  is  to  do  you 
good,  it  ought  by  this  time  to  have  had  that 
result.  I  hope  your  own  medical  man  will 
see  you  as  soon  as  you  come  to  London.  .  .  . 
I  would  be  very  interested  if  you  would  let  me 
see  or  hear  what  his  report  may  be. 

"  You  may  be  quite  sure  I  will  be  only  too 

120 


AS   I  KNEW  HIM 

pleased  to  have  an  interview  with  you  and  to 
give  you  any  advice  that  Hes  in  my  power. 
You  are  right  to  rely  upon  me,  and  I  hope  it 
may  not  be  in  vain. 

"  Thank  you  very  much  for  your  kind 
enquiries  about  my  health.  I  am  now  pretty 
vigorous,  as  much  so  as  I  shall  ever  be,  and 
yet  I  do  not  think  that  Nauheim  this  year 
had  anything  like  as  powerful  an  effect  upon 
me  as  it  had  upon  the  occasion  of  my  first 
visit ;  but  then  I  say  to  myself,  there  is  cause 
for  that ;  first,  the  heart  is  three  years  older, 
and  that  is  something ;  second,  I  had  no 
holiday  last  year  at  all ;  it  was  a  continuous 
strain  the  whole  of  1903,  except  three  or  four 
days  at  Folkestone,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
that  told  heavily  upon  me  when  the  winter 
came." 

If  only  the  dear,  good  man,  would  have 
been  half  as  particular  with  himself  as  he  was 
with  his  staff,  in  the  matter  of  holidays  ! 

I  presented  myself  at  Stepney,  in  accord- 
ance with  his  instructions  to  "be  down  in 
time  to  have  lunch  before  I  come  "  ;  and  his 
arrival  was  heralded  b}'-  loud  enquiries  as  to 
whether  I  was  there,  very  much  in  the  tone  of 
a  father  seeking  a  long-lost  child  ! 

"  Well,  you  are  a  picture  of  health  !  "  he 
exclaimed  gleefully.  Then  after  a  long  look 
— into  the  heart,  it  seemed,  "  I'm  not  so 
sure  about  you  though  !  What  does  Dr.  S. 
say  ?  " 

I  told  him  that  a  second  visit  and  "  laziness  " 

ISl 


DR.  BARNARDO 

between,  were  pronounced  needful  for  perma- 
nent cure. 

"  Can  you  manage  it — financially  ?  "  he 
asked  quickly. 

"  With  an  effort,  yes.  But  I  don't  want  to 
waste  all  that  time,  and  really  I  do  feel  strong 
enough  for  work." 

"  Feeling's  nothing.  Now,  mind  you  go. 
A  second  visit  within  the  year,  is  the  thing." 

Here  followed  a  medical  disquisition  which 
showed  how  entirely  he  had  made  himself 
master  of  the  details  of  the  treatment,  and 
of  its  effects.  And  then  he  spoke  of  himself 
and  professed  the  strongest  wish  to  return  to 
Nauheim  when  I  did — the  treatment  season 
beginning  in  late  spring. 

"  Then  why  not  do  it  ?  " 

"  Simply  because  I  dare  not  leave  my  work 
again  so  soon.  I  know  I'm  taking  my  life  in 
my  hands,  but  I  believe  it  is  the  right  thing — 
unless,  indeed,  the  way  should  be  made  so 
clear  that  I  feel  sure,  later  on,  that  it  is  my 
bounden  duty  to  go.  Now  with  you  it's 
different.  You  have  no  home  ties  at  present 
— you  are  free  to  do  as  you  like,  and  remember, 
humanly  speaking,  your  whole  future  depends 
on  your  being  sensible  now." 

In  view  of  such  cogent  arguments  I  could 
but  consent  to  being  "  sensible  for  once," 
although  it  meant  not  being  able  to  offer 
myself  for  re-engagement  for  so  many  months 
— happily,  it  did  not  enter  my  head  then, 
that  it  would  involve  never  again  returning 

122 


AS   I   KNEW  HIM 

to  my  beloved  work.  But  the  advice  was  so 
sound  that  it  did  actually  lead  to  my  taking 
on  a  new  lease  of  health  and  strength. 

He  was  just  leaving  the  room,  after  a  long 
confabulation,  when  I  remarked  : 

"  I  suppose  the  little  grandson  is  quite  a 
new  thing  in  babies  ?  " 

"  Of  course  he  is — ^the  very  finest  specimen 
ever  invented.  I've  a  great  mind  to  show  you 
his  photo." 

"  Why  not  ?    Please,  do." 

And  off  he  walked  to  the  Board  Room, 
returning  with  a  charming  picture  of  a  sturdy 
little  fellow,  whose  attitude — almost  o^  his 
mother's  knee — certainly  did  suggest  some- 
thing of  his  grandfather's  activity.  I  thought, 
too,  that  I  could  trace  a  likeness  in  the  ex- 
pression of  his  face. 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  the  Head,  though 
evidently  pleased  with  the  compliment.  "  I'm 
going  to  show  you  another,"  fetching  the 
companion  picture — both  habitually  occupied 
places  of  honour  on  his  writing-table. 

This,  too,  I  could  genuinely  admire,  and 
it  was  with  a  look  of  fond  affection,  as  he 
studied  the  little  face  for  the  hundredth  time, 
that  Dr.  Barnardo  took  his  departure,  my 
last  sight  of  him,  leaving  an  impression  of 
supreme  content — just  the  very  memory  he 
would  have  chosen  to  leave  behind  him. 

I  returned  from  Nauheim  at  the  end  of 
June,  but  it  was  not  until  September  that  I 

123 


DR.  BARNARDO 

was  free  to  offer  myself  for  re-engagement. 
Then  it  struck  me  that  it  might  be  more 
satisfactory  to  Dr.  Barnardo  if  I  were  to  get 
the  doctor  who  had  treated  me  at  Lowestoft 
to  give  a  written  report  of  my  condition.  So 
I  went  down  for  a  few  days,  and  was  met  by 
the  overwhelming  tidings  of  the  death  of  our 
dear  Chief. 

It  so  happened  that  meetings  on  behalf  of 
the  Homes  had  been  arranged  in  the  town, 
for  the  following  week,  and  when  I  went  into 
one  of  the  Nonconformist  churches  on  the 
Sunday  morning,  it  was  to  find  the  well- 
known  deputation,  the  Rev.  W.  J.  Mayers 
(a  personal  friend  of  Dr.  Barnardo's  for 
thirty-five  years),  in  the  pulpit.  His  musical 
boys  occupied  the  front  pews.  Many,  if  not 
all,  of  them  knew  the  Doctor  personally,  and 
their  emotion  was  evident  as,  in  halting 
tones,  the  preacher  read  of  the  touching  fare- 
well between  the  apostle  Paul  and  his  friends, 
who  were  "  sorrowing  most  of  all  that  they 
should  see  his  face  no  more." 

To  think  of  our  beloved  Leader  as  really 
gone  from  us,  seemed  impossible — indeed, 
even  at  this  interval,  his  presence  still  lingers 
round  the  places  he  seemed  to  invest  with 
something  of  his  own  intense  personality. 

It  is  a  significant  fact,  too,  that  those  of 
the  staff  who  knew  (and  understood)  him 
best,  loved  him  most.  One  of  his  private 
staff,  for  instance,  declares  that,  in  talking 
with  another,   "  We  never  can  keep  off  the 

124 


AS  I  KNEW   HIM 

subject.  Wherever  the  conversation  begins, 
it  invariably  veers  round  to  Dr.  Barnardo — 
an  inexhaustible  theme."  And,  in  writing 
these  reminiscences,  I  am  greatly  struck  with 
the  more  than  willingness  of  my  former  col- 
leagues to  render  any  help  that  might  tend 
to  create  a  living  picture  of  our  Director. 

Thoroughly  human,  and  so  not  free  from 
limitations  and  shortcomings.  Dr.  Barnardo 
was  yet  so  intensely  in  earnest,  so  untiring 
in  his  devotion  to  the  great  work  to  which  he 
felt  himself  called  of  God,  so  full  of  deep 
affection,  so  quick  in  his  sympathies,  and  a 
man  of  such  absolute,  childlike  faith,  that  to 
have  known  him  and  to  have  worked  with 
him,  is  a  joyful  memory  to  those  who  were 
privileged  to  help  him — however  humbly — in 
his  fight  against  sin  and  sorrow  and  suffering. 


125 


CHRONOLOGICAL   SUMMARY 

1845,     July  4.     Dr.  Barnardo  born  in  Dublin. 
1862.     Definitely  dedicates  himself  to  the  service 

of  God. 
1866.     Enters  the  London  Hospital  as  a  Medical 

Missionary  student. 
Meets  his  "  First  Arab." 
1868.     Starts  a  Home  in  two  cottages  in  Hope 

Place,  Stepney,  in  the  name  of  East  End 

Juvenile  Mission. 
1870.     Opens  the  first  of  the  Barnardo  Homes,  at 

18  Stepney  Causeway. 

1872.  Takes    over     the     "Edinburgh     Castle" 

public-house. 

1873.  Marries  Miss  Syrie  Louise  Elmslie. 

Commences  work  amongst  Girls  with  a 
small  Home  at  Barkingside  (nucleus  of 
Girls*  Village  Homes). 

1876.  Takes  his  L.R.C.S.  (Ed.)  and  registers  as 

medical  practitioner  in  London. 

1877.  Commences   Night  and  Day,   the   official 

organ  of  the  Homes. 
Appointment  of  a  Committee  to  deal  with 
financial  matters,  under  the  presidency 
of  the  late  Earl  Cairns. 
1879.     Receives  gift  of  Home  for  Little  Boys  in 
Jersey, 

126 


DR.  BARNARDO 

1881.  Opens  Youths*  Labour  House  and  Young 

Women's  Hotel  in  Burdett  Road. 

1882.  Despatches  first  organized  party  of  Boys 

to  Canada. 

1883.  Sends  first  party  of  Girls  to  Canada. 

1884.  Receives    gift    of    house    at    Hawkhurst, 

afterwards  known  as  Babies*  Castle. 
Pays  his  first  visit  of  inspection  to  Canada. 
1886.     Opens  Convalescent  Home  at  Felixstowe. 
Boarding-out  adopted  as  a  feature  of  the 
Homes. 
1889.     Opens  Her  Majesty's  Hospital  in  Stepney 
Causeway. 
Establishes  an  Industrial  Home  for  elder 
Girls,  at  Hackney. 

1891.  Passing  of  the  Custody  of  Children  Bill, 

commonly  called  the  "  Barnardo  "  Bill. 
Commences  to  organize  the  Young  Helpers' 
League. 

1892.  Opens  the  first  seven  "  Ever-open  Doors  '* 

in  the  provinces. 

1894.  Receives  the  gift  of  a  house  at  Birkdale  as  a 

Home  for  Little  Incurables. 

1895.  Suffers  from  his  first  serious  heart  attack. 

1898.  Enjoys  the  first  systematic  celebration  of 

his  birthday — now  known  as  *'  Founder's 
Day." 
Opens  a  second  Home  for  Incurables,  at 
Bradford. 

1899.  Incorporation  by  Act  of  Parliament  of  the 

Homes. 

1900.  Receives    as    a   gift    the    former    Norfolk 

County  School,  now  known  as  the  Watts* 
Naval  Training  School. 

127 


DR.  BARNARDO 

1901.  Has  a  second  severe  heart  atteick  and  goes 

to  Nauheim  twice  for  treatment. 

1902.  Opens  a  Home  for  Cripples  (incurable)  at 

Tunbridge  Wells. 

1904.  Has  another  serious  attack  and  returns  to 

Nauheim  for  treatment. 

1905.  Has  two  severe  attacks  and  goes  to  Nau- 

heim too  late  for  treatment. 
Returns  home  and  passes  peacefully  away 
on  September  19. 


ije« 


INDEX 


Babies'  Castle,  Hawkurst, 
18 

Baker,  Mr.  William,  19 

Bamardo,  Dr.  T.  J.  (per- 
sonal events)  — 
Ancestry  and  birth,  14 
Dedication  to  the  ser- 
vice of  God  and  Man, 
14 
Commences   studies   at 
London  Hospital,  15 
Marriage,  16 
Illness  and  death,  21 

Bamardo  Homes,  opening 
of  the  first  of  the,  16 

Boarding  out,  18 

Birkdale  Home  for  Incur- 
able Children,  18 

Boys'   Village,   Woodford 
Bridge,  19 

Canada,  emigration  to,  19 
—  Dr.  Barnardo  visits,  19 
"  Children's  Fold,"  17 
Crippled    and    Incurable 
Children,  Homes  for,  18 

Deafness,  Dr.  Bamardo's, 

23,  55-61 
Dream,  remarkable,  24-30 

East   End  Juvenile   Mis- 
sion, 15 


Edinburgh  Castle  Coffee 
Palace,  16 

Emigrants,  young.  Dr. 
Bamardo's  personal  in- 
terest in,  12,  50,  51 

Emigration  to  Canada,  19 

Ever-open  Doors,  17 

"First  Arab,"  Dr.  Bar- 
nardo's,  16 

Gossage  Case,  91,  92 
Girls'  Village  Homes,  es- 
tablishment of,  16 
—  —  —  description  of,  as 
at  present,  17 

Hawkurst,  Babies'  Castle 
at,  18 

Harrogate,  Home  for  In- 
curable Children  at,  18 

Hospital, Her  Majesty's,  in 
Stepney  Causeway,  es- 
tablishment of,  18 

H.R.H.  Princess  Mary  of 
Teck  at  the  first  Young 
Helper's  Bazaar,  69 

Humour,  Dr.  Bamardo's 
love  of,  40,  41 

Income  of  the  Homes,  Dr. 
Bamardo  accepts  the 
responsibility  for,  27 


129 


DR.   BARNARDO 


Income  of  the  Homes,  Dr. 
Bamardo's  views  on,  27 

Labour  House,    17 

Letters  from  Dr.  Bar- 
nardo,  12,  22,  63,  64, 
66,  71  72,  93,  94,  98, 
99,  102,  106-8,109,110, 
111,  113,  114,  116-18, 
120-1 

Mayers,  Rev.  W.  J.,  124 

Nauheim,  Dr.  Bamardo 
visits,  21,  119,  120 

Poole,      The     late     Mrs. 

Evered,  62,  82 
Prayer,     Dr.     Bamardo's 

views  on,  103,  104 
Prayer-meetings  taken  by 

Dr.  Bamardo,  102-5 

Staff,  the.  Dr.  Bamardo's 
dealings  with,  32-36, 
40-43,  45,  52-55,  63-67, 
70-76,  87-90,  97 


Staff,  the,  Dr.  Bamardo's 
pride  in,  79-82 

Sympathy,  Dr  Bamardo's 
ready,  11,  15,  25,  39, 
47,  48,  73-77,  78-80, 
93,  94,  104,  106,  109, 
110 

"  The  Father  of  Nobody's 

Children,"  20 
Timbridge    Wells    Home 

for  Cripples,  18 

Watts'  Naval  Training 
School,  gift  of  the,  20 

Woodford  Bridge  Boys' 
Village,  17 

Young  Helpers'  League, 
20,  28,  37,  38,  57 

— Bazaar,  first,  68- 

70 

—  —  —  Magazine,  62,  63, 
113,  114 

Yoimg  People,  Dr.  Ber- 
nardo's intense  interest 
in,  11,  16,  39,40,  44-49, 
76,  77 


WILLIAM    BKEKDON   AND  SON,   LTD.,    PRINTERS,    FLYMOUTH 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFOENIA  LIBRAEY, 

BERKELEY 

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iUN  Bl  1921    " 

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